One fine morning, Roshan wakes up in jolly mood with eyes open wide and smile all around. His mother is coming to stay with him to give company to his lonely life in Delhi. Now onward, he will not force himself to wake up and prepare breakfast before rushing to office. When he returns home, he will find all those mouth-watering dishes and foods that he has been missing for months in front of his eyes. She will be busy the whole day thinking what to prepare for her child to eat when he returns from office tired. The smell of home food and the warmth and love of the mother, he will not ask for more to God for at least a month. He has been impatiently waiting for this day since the day he booked ticket for his mother. After quick shower, he rushes to the airport in ecstasy and stands in front of the wide LCD screen, checking the flight status. Minutes after minutes, flights arrived and departed. Every time he keeps looking at his watch, and impatience makes him feel if his watch has stopped ticking. Now, he starts wondering whether the flight will ever arrive. All of the sudden, life rewinds to those youthful days of those wild and never-worry-for-anything days. After many years, he remembers how impatiently he waited his first love for the first date. Those days when his world rotated only around her, but who already left him today when he is in dire need of her to give company in his solitariness and self-exile in quest of making career and earning money. All loved ones also disappear along with the waning youth. But today he has all the reasons to forget those melancholic thoughts but instead rejoice once again for being stood by the eternal love—the love that never lessens for anything and anywhere. Loneliness and distance have already taught him the love and care of parents for their children. At one side endless thoughts and joys flooded his mind, and on the other hand flight never arrived. By now he is tired of watching both LCD monitor and sky for the flight. Finally the watch strikes 10:30 am, and both heartbeat and impatience get stronger. He can see the same curiosity and happiness in the eyes of others who are also impatiently waiting for their loved ones. After 5 minutes, chaos and noise erupted inside the airport. Policeman and fire brackets start running amok. In no time, the eyes that bore impatience and curiosity turn into fear. The word “plane crash” spread like wildfire. The next few hours follow a state of disbelief, screaming, crying, and wondering amid lifeless bodies strewn all over. Many of them are charred beyond recognition. After wondering over here and there unconsciously, a half-charred body lying near a thick bush returned all his every-over-here-and-there-wondering senses to him. She is calmly waiting for her son. But this time, she does not smile at him and opens her wide arms to embrace him.
Now, change “Roshan” to “I”. Hasn’t your world shattered yet? What will you do with the lifeless body of your mother in a land that is thousand miles away from your home with no one to assist you? WARNING! Don’t even try to imagine how it will feel like. Every plane crash left untold miseries and heartbreaking stories. Accidents do happen, but the accidents orchestrated by human errors and negligence deserve punishment. The recent Air India plane crash at Mangalore airport that killed 158 of 166 passengers on board was a national tragedy. Along with grief sparks a fresh debate on how unsafe the Indian sky is for airlines.
If we look at the developments in the Indian aviation industry in the last few years and the daily near misses, the recent air crash can only be termed as “unfortunate,” not “unexpected.” It was just the culmination of negligence and innumerable near misses that make newspapers and news channels headlines from now and then. The aviation industry has expanded tremendously in the recent years with the mushrooming of many new commercial airline companies. Because of the inclusion of many low-cost airlines, the number of domestic passenger has shot up more than three times in the last 5 years. Today, Indira Gandhi International Airport handles more than 700 flights a day; the same airport handled only 77 flights daily in 2002-03. Similarly, Mumbai Airport today handles more than 600 flights daily, although it handled only 96 flights a day in 2002-03. So, the big question is “Do the present infrastructure and safety standards keep pace with the alarming growth of passengers and flights?” The answer is big “NO”.
Whenever any air crash happens, the first report that comes out is it would have been caused by pilot error. Investigation in the number of cases and incidents that would have caused accidents has found most of them are related to pilot behavior. Investigation on the recent 15 near misses and other cases has found pilots reporting drunk for duty. There are also other factors that cause near misses, such as lack of communication between pilots and air traffic controller, poor training, infrequent inspection, difficult location of the airport, and of course the congestion of flights in major airports. Expanding airport, adding runways, and building new airports will take both time and money. So, the immediate step that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), as a regulatory body for civil aviation and is responsible for ensuring safety and monitoring pilots, has to take up is to take disciplinary action on those pilots and crew members who report duty drunk. There must be zero-tolerance approach to alcohol-related behaviors. Pilot drunkenness has direct impact on the safety of the flights. The DGCA has revealed that in the last 1 year, a total of 42 alcohol positive cases related to pilot were detected. However in response to RTI reply, the DGCA reveals neither the names of the airlines nor the names of the pilots, whether the pilots were detected before they boarded the flights, whether the pilots were stopped from flying, and the nature of action taken against them. Such information should be made transparent to the public.
Today when I woke up, my blood was boiled by the front page headlines of the Times of India “VIP flights force 3 jets land with no fuel to spare.” According to the news, the Indira Gandhi Airport was closed due to President Patil’s departure for China. Because of these, more than 10 flights were diverted and many were asked to fly around. And the worst of all, three unlucky flights ran out of fuel when they landed to Jaipur. Who will be responsible for the 450 plus passengers on board if any of the flights were not that very lucky—the president, civil aviation minister, pilots, or the DGCA? Not only this, just 3 days ago there was a narrow escape in Mumbai airport when an Indigo flight landed on the same runway where a Jet Airways flight was ready to take off. The precision of the pilot averted the tragedy. If these near misses are the order of the day, there is really no surprise when there is air crash. The lesson to learn is “You can’t get lucky everyday.” And, safety measures and precision must be taken on every moment and operation. We cannot afford innocent and valuable lives pay the price for the negligence of the higher authority. VVIP movements are synonymous to public inconvenience. Whenever our leaders decide to travel, the common men have to suffer all the inconveniences, be it a 3-km-long traffic jam, late in the office or call it a day, or landing flight at the destination 3 hours behind the schedule, and so on. A plane carries extra fuel only for hovering half an hour for the destination airport and some more for the alternative airport when emergency arises. Airline companies have requested aviation authorities a number of time to let them know about the VVIP movement in advance so that they can carry more than 30-minute hovering fuel. But their pleas are rejected for security concern. Yes, it is true that top security should be given to the movement of our leaders. It is also equally true that hundreds of people should not be left stranded on air in the process. BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN’T WALK ON AIR!!!
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