After the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday, 6 July, issued a show-cause notice to SpiceJet in connection with the degradation of safety margins of its aircraft, Arun Kumar, chief of aviation regulator at the DGCA, said that about 30 flight incidents happen every day in the country and a majority of them have no safety implications.
The show-cause notice to SpiceJet was issued after its planes had eight technical malfunctions over the past 18 days.
Kumar elaborated:
"On an average, about 30 incidents do take place, which includes go around, missed approaches, diversion, medical emergencies, weather issues, bird hits, runway incursion, runway excursion et al."
"Most of them have no safety implications. On the contrary, they are sine qua non (essential condition) of a robust safety management system," he added.
'Uninformed Drivel': Jet Airways CEO
A day later, Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor said that there is a lot of “uninformed drivel” on social media and that users should seek out information from experts instead.
He added, “The amount of uninformed drivel I have seen on news channels and social media last 24 hours on matters relating to aviation safety and glitches, is astounding. Genuine issues and non-issues conflated and given equal coverage. Folks, please seek out informed, expert opinions. Don't go by hearsay.”
In its show-cause notice to SpiceJet, the DGCA had said the airline has failed to "establish safe, efficient and reliable air services" under the terms of Rule 134 and Schedule XI of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.
The latest incident involved a China-bound cargo plane returning to Kolkata after its weather radar stopped working. It was the eighth incident of technical malfunction on a SpiceJet aircraft in the last 18 days.
On the same day, SpiceJet’s Delhi-Dubai flight was diverted to Karachi due to a malfunctioning fuel indicator and its Kandla-Mumbai flight did priority landing in Maharashtra's capital city after cracks developed on its windshield mid-air.
In an interview with PTI on Wednesday, SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh had said that a lot of incidents that are being reported are relatively minor in nature and happen to every airline.
"This is nothing unique…. When you have thousands of flights, sometimes the air conditioning will fail, sometimes a bird will hit the plane, and sometimes a fuel indicator will light up,” he said.
"These things are going to happen and, of course, we have to minimise that to the greatest extent possible. That is our job and it is the regulator's job to push us to make things better, which we will do," he noted.
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)