DC Edit | Make Flying Safer, Create Buffer Zones at Airports
Apart from the technical failure in the aircraft, the most disturbing element in the crash was that there was no chance of avoiding casualties once trouble began, because it went down in a densely populated area outside the airport;
The devastating crash of the Air India AI 171 Boeing Dreamliner has plunged India into collective grief and disbelief. The pictures of the wreckage and the videos of aircraft, engulfed in a fireball, were so vivid that they could shake the confidence of even the most seasoned air travellers. The heightened levels of anxiety among people are making them tremble over routine flight operations like emergency landings, attracting media limelight and further damaging the people’s trust in air travel.
The government has already appointed a high-level committee headed by Union home secretary Govind Mohan, which was tasked with submitting its report within 90 days. However, the appointment of the new committee could further delay the investigation, as a one-man probe could expedite the process.
With aviation authorities finding two black boxes — flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR), they should immediately identify the cause of the crash — a technical failure, human error, weather-related factor, or a combination thereof. The findings must be swiftly made public, and concrete measures must be taken to prevent such a catastrophe from repeating itself.
Apart from the technical failure in the aircraft, the most disturbing element in the crash was that there was no chance of avoiding casualties once trouble began, because it went down in a densely populated area outside the airport. If the immediate vicinity of the Ahmedabad airport had open spaces, instead of being a cluttered residential zone, the pilot could have made a last-ditch effort at saving lives by crash-landing the aircraft.
According to a study published by Boeing, nearly half of all aircraft accidents occur during landing, and 14 per cent occur during takeoff. During both the critical stages, the aircraft would be closest to the ground, often giving too little time to the pilot to take corrective action.
Unlike new greenfield airports such as Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and D.B. Patil International Airport in Navi Mumbai, most old airports, including Ahmedabad, are surrounded by densely populated residential zones. This is a stark reminder that the country’s policy makers have failed to account for the safety corridors that are essential for modern aviation.
Airports are not merely points of transit. They are complex systems which are designed to address the unpredictable nature of flight. Around the world, well-planned airports maintain buffer zones, such as open spaces free of tall buildings, dense housing or industrial complexes, to ensure that the aircraft in distress has a fighting chance to land safely.
The high-level committee, which is probing the Dreamliner crash, hopefully addresses the whole gamut of issues that affect the safety of aircraft and their passengers — including a lack of crash-landing zones and the psychological state of pilots — instead of confining itself merely to technical issues that led to the aircraft losing thrust.
The aviation sector is the most important element in the development of a country. However, it must inspire confidence among people. The government must do all that it can to reorient airports and airlines towards providing safe air travel to people.