The government may consider setting up a separate body to investigate air accidents in line with the US National Transportation Safety Board, in view of Saturday's air crash in Mangalore that claimed 158 lives.
The government may consider setting up a separate body to investigate air accidents in line with the US National Transportation Safety Board, in view of Saturday's air crash in Mangalore that claimed 158 lives.
"We will be looking at this aspect (setting of an independent body to investigate accidents) very meaningfully.... We will look at, may be a different, an independent regulator for this purpose," civil aviation minister Praful Patel told CNN-IBN tonight.
His comments came when he was asked whether the government could consider establishing an independent body to probe accidents, like the NTSB that investigates all major accidents in the US including air crashes or accidents at sea or on highways.
Replying to questions on the Air India Express crash, Patel did not rule out a human error factor but made it clear that the report of the inquiry being conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation should be awaited before coming to any conclusion.
"You cannot rule out a human error factor. Certainly all parameters looked normal for a normal touchdown," he said.
To a question on his offer to resign during his meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh last night, Patel said it was an "emotional moment ... I accepted it (the crash) as a moral responsibility ... At the end of the day, I am the head of the civil aviation family.
"But at the same time, irrespective of who is responsible and whether it is necessary for a Minister to say that I am accountable or not, the fact is I personally felt very bad. I was upset about the whole thing. .... There is no logical answer to an emotional situation".
Patel also said he had spoken to the DGCA to go into issues relating to small and difficult airports so that new policy formulations could be evolved in view of the peculiar problems there.
Asked about a "complete revamp" of Air India Express as all managerial positions were "part-time", he said "yes, if that is the case, it will be done. And also the fact is that it cannot be said that it is completely headless. After all, it is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India."
"We will look at further strengthening of the management set-up of the Air India Express," Patel said.
Commenting on the claims of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association that problem lies with expat pilots, Patel said, "Do Indian pilots not go and work overseas? The answer is they do. Many countries, many airlines across the world hire pilots. Please let us not get into this unnecessary debate. I do not wish to comment on the pilot fraternity."
To a question that whether this debate was not valid, he said, "I think as long as pilot is technically qualified to fly and DGCA has certified a person to fly in India. I think let us not challenge the competence and technical competence of DGCA. If we don't have faith in our of regulatory institution, who are we going to rely on. I would not like to be dragged in this unnecessary debate."
To a question will there be a comprehensive review of airports, he said that he discussed it with DGCA yesterday in the night that airports where it is found that "such issues" could be of concern should "certainly" be looked into.
He however, immediately made it clear that this was not to raise an "alarm bell". "I don't want people in the country to feel that overnight flying is unsafe."
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