Kozhikode Plane Crash AND Safety Issues In Indian Airline Industry: The Gaurav Taneja(Flying Beast) Story

                       

                                                                        credit:livemint

The plane crash in Kerala of Air India has distressed all of us and has raised the questions again on the government that is it safe for the public to fly in India, Is the safety of people in good hands or not?
Previously popular Youtuber and a trained pilot Mr Gaurav Taneja also know as the 'Flying Beast' put up questions on the condition of pilots and management in the Indian airline industry for which he was even suspended from his job, But even today there has been no response from the airline industry or from the government whether these issues persist or not. Now this problem is for all of us as must of us usually travel in aeroplanes. A few days back when the US banned Pakistani flights as their pilots were caught with fake license Indian media started celebrating that decision as if we don't have any problem in our airline industry, our problem is more or less similar to them. Today I am going to discuss major problems in the airline industry-

1)Technical Problems and Delays In Flight

Indian airlines industry have reported a jump in technical problem and flight cancellations and delays in the past few days, raising passenger safety concerns. Over the weekend, market leader IndiGo reported as many as five technical problems, while SpiceJet and Jet Airways reported three each and the Air India reported two.

2)Deduction In Sick leaves Of Pilot's

As a pilot, Mr Gaurav Taneja said in his previous videos that how airline companies forcefully make pilots fly the plane even if they are not well, also their sick leaves are counted as holidays and when they don't listen to the company they are threatened with pay cuts. If its a normal job and you are a little stressed, then it's fine- it can be endured but if a pilot flies a plane for 15 days in a state of distress, then it becomes a safety risk for all the passengers on board that plane if he is unable to fly the plane properly and then after any accident company put blames on the pilot. Like previously in January DGCA issued a notice on more than 100 GoAir pilots for violating the norms of FDTL.

DGCA norms for pilots fatigue are as follows-

• The Flight Time/Flight Duty Time limitations and rest period prescribed in the Civil Aviation Requirement shall apply to all operators and flight crew members as per the category of operation.

8 HOURS	-	24 HOURS
35 HOURS	-	1 Week
125 HOURS	-	ONE MONTH
1000 HOURS	-	1 Year

• Every crew member shall be given rest, which will be pro-rata twice the flight time subject to a minimum of 10 hrs. in any 24 consecutive hrs.

• A minimum of 24 hrs. rest encompassing period 2000 hrs. to 0600 hrs. shall be provided to all crew members in any 7 consecutive days. This will be in addition to the rest based upon the flying in the last 24 consecutive hours.

• Whenever flight crew is scheduled on deadheading to operate the flight, this shall count as flight duty.

• Deadheading done after operating the commercial flight will neither count as duty nor as a rest period. In this case, if flight duty time and deadheading time exceeds 18 hours, then the following rest period must include a local night.

• Whenever a flight crew is deputed as safety pilot/observer the period of such duty shall be counted in his Flight Duty Time.

• Simulator time shall not count towards the flight time.

• The operator shall not roster any Flight Crew Member to undertake flight for more than two consecutive nights with duty period embracing any period between 0000 to 0500 hours local time.

• Additional rest of two hours shall be provided for every hour or part thereof of duty period that impinges into the said period of 0000to 0500 hrs.

 Fundamental Principles

• The first is that the duty schedule should not prevent the aircrew from ensuring that they are fully rested at the start of each duty period. Particular problems can arise when duty periods encroach on normal sleep time, or when the normal sleep pattern is disturbed by time zone transitions. In these circumstances the provision of adequate time for rest is essential.

• The second principle is that the duration and timing of individual duty periods must enable the aircrew to maintain acceptable levels of alertness at all times.

3)Maintenance Issues

A Patna-Hyderabad-Chennai flight of SpiceJet, also a Boeing 737, was grounded in Hyderabad due to a problem with its wheel and brake, said sources. 

A Jet Airways aircraft, flying between Mumbai and Jaipur, was grounded after a wheel of the Boeing 737 was damaged upon landing, industry sources said. A Mumbai-Doha flight operated by the airline, an Airbus 330, had to return to the bay before take-off due to vibration in one of the engines

“An A320 (non-neo) aircraft, VT INZ, operating Cochin-Mumbai and another A320 (non-neo) aircraft, VT IFU, operating Mumbai-Goa had technical snag detected during departure.

From last many years, there have been issues like this in the airline sector where there are damages found in the plane like fuel leaks, landing errors and etc. Personally, I think that because of the economic fall and bad hits to the airline sector and now because of the coronavirus there has been a great loss to the companies, and that is why to remain in the competition they are cost-cutting in the maintenance.

4)Pressurising Pilots In Handling The Aircraft

Mr Gaurav Taneja also described this problem in his youtube video, now I'll elaborate this for you guys. What happens is that there are various ways of landing an Airplane as shown in the figure below-

                                

     

                                                                       credits: aircadets

         

                                                                     credits:flightleteracy

if you'll take a look on the above images you'll get to know that there are various different ways for the landing of a plane we won't get in-depth of the procedures but what you need to know is that there is way known as 'Flap-3 landing technique" In this type of landing technique, the fuel is saved more, the technique works efficiently during the normal conditions but if there is any problem in weather, runway or anything else they have to use the Flap-4 technique which works efficiently during bad conditions.

According to Mr Gaurav Taneja, the companies force their pilots to use the Flap-3 way more than 90% to save the fuel even if the conditions are not good and they even bribe them with more bonus for this, which he proved by showing a document on the interview on Dhruv Rathee' youtube channel shown below. On the last line, you'll be able to see that the company questioned him that why he did only 73% landings according to the Flap technique told to him when the target was of 98

                     

                                                                            credit: youtube

Kozhikode(Kerala) Plane Crash

Now talking about plane crash in Kozhikode we still don't know about the actual reason behind that it can be a pilot failure, weather effect or the management failure of government.

Till now the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had served a notice to the airport, operated by the government-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), after an audit revealed safety concerns‘excessive rubber deposits’—an occurrence that poses even higher risks in times of rains.

Both the pilots have died in the incident so it's now much more difficult to determine the cause of crash we hope that the authorities will solve the mystery soon.

CONCLUSION

After the incident like various ministers including the Prime Minister And the Home Minister tweeted for the well being of those who died and for their families-

 

                                                                 credit: twitter

But I don't think we need these tweets anymore we all need solutions from the government.
On one hand where BJP government is supporting privatisation openly and on the other hand, these incidents are happening continuously. 

I'll suggest the government to keep a check on the working of airline companies only making the policies is the solution they should be implemented strictly also there should be a regular check on pilots health and stress.

If any of your known people were there on the Air India flight that crashed you can enquire about them for the phone numbers given below:

Airport Control Room: 0483 2719493

Malappuram Collectorate: 0483 2736320

Kozhikode Collectorate: 0495 2376901

Abhishek Rawat

Content Writer

@DayLightMedia