Has DGCA forgotten CASAC??? ““Air Indias latest acquisition, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has been giving the airline and the authorities a severe headache ever since it was introduced into service in September 2012. The unending glitches affecting AIs 787 is worrying and is something that Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) would have definitely taken up, said a CASAC member who did not wish to be named. CASAC, formed in the aftermath of the deadly Mangalore crash of 2010 that claimed 158 lives, to strengthen aviation safety environment hasnt held a single meeting for over a year. In its last meeting held on February 22 2013, the minutes of which are with HT, it had been decided that the council would meet within two months. Since that meeting, the aviation secretary has retired and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has got a new chief and everybody has forgotten about CASAC, he said. The 787 is one aircraft which has left both its operator Air India and the regulator flummoxed. For a brand new plane to suffer such glitches is unheard of and is very scary, said an AI 787 pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Every other day we hear a new bizarre 787 story. Failure of flight management computers (that control navigation) and transponders (that give collision warning and can be used in cases of hijack to send alerts) and windshield cracks dont happen in a new aircraft, he said. For passengers, too, the Dreamliners have become a nightmare many would like to forget. Twice, I had to miss out on important meetings as the 787 I was scheduled to fly on developed snags. First, it was a Melbourne-Delhi flight that made an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur sending my schedule haywire, while the next was a Birmingham flight that didnt take off. Now, I have decided to check which aircraft I fly before I book tickets, said a senior executive of a multinational company on his 787 experiences. We summoned Boeing officials last week and told them to fix the problem at the earliest or otherwise we would be forced to act, said a DGCA official. Going by official records, however, there have been only two accidents in India between 2009 and 2012 compared to 105 reported in the US during the same period. This, many believe, is because most domestic carriers have not been reporting serious incidents to the aviation regulator. There have been many instances when the DGCA has been tipped off about incidents by other sources as the airlines werent forthcoming enough.””
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 03:39:32 +0000
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