Centre mulls more power to DGCA, new air safety board

Sweeping changes are in the air. The government is thinking of giving more powers to the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) and setting up an independent safety board to investigate air accidents. The move comes after the Mangalore air crash on May 22 in which 158 persons were killed. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel said on Thursday the independent safety board being thought of would be along the lines of America's national transportation safety board (NTSB).

After addressing the first meeting of the civil aviation safety advisory council (Casac), set up within a week of the Mangalore crash, he said that if needed, the government would bring in "suitable legislation" to turn DGCA into a fully autonomous body with overriding authority in all regulatory matters. "I assure you they [DGCA] have the fullest autonomy and will continue to have it. We will try to bring in appropriate legislation if necessary to further strengthen and empower DGCA so that their autonomy is well respected.

" The government was thinking of setting up a separate body to probe accidents since it felt that the regulator (DGCA) should not be doing the job of investigating too, the minister said. NTSB investigates all major accidents in the US, including air crashes or accidents at sea or on highways. It also helps other nations probe such accidents. During Thursday's meeting, DGCA gave a summary of its new guidelines on operations and airworthiness that can be used by aviation safety inspectors. A surveillance and enforcement division has been set up in DGCA for its annual surveillance programme. The agency conducted 4,327 surveillance activities in 2009 and plans another 4,788 this year.

The meeting was chaired by the director-general of civil aviation N Zaidi and attended by 28 members from aviation sub-sectors such as public sector and private airlines, flight operations and air worthiness. Representatives from the international civil aviation organization, the US federal aviation authority, Boeing and Airbus also attended the meet.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).