By Mark D Martin, CEO Martin Consulting
Air India Flight 171 killed 230 passengers including 169 Indians,11 children and 2 infants; 53 British, 1 Canadian, 7 Portuguese, 2 pilots, 10 crew and former BJP Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in possibly the most tragic and shocking air disaster in 40 years. There’s a very good reason why the investigation into the cause of this crash is now a multinational global enquiry with active oversight from the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (UKCAA), FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Transport Canada in addition to Boeing, the Indian DGCA and the AIB. And that is, this is the first ever controlled flight Air Disaster involving the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft operated now by a Privately owned Air India by the Tata’s and Singapore Airlines with a 24% Shareholding in the airline.
Over the last 20 years passengers attacked and lambasted the Government of India for running a shoddy Air India with losses, Unions with an indifferent and arrogant attitude with service, quality, and standards. Shockingly though, Air India under Government ownership flew, operated without any major air incident, disaster and catastrophe in forty years, except possibly Air India being a victim of world Terror (AI 182 Kanishka).
If-it-aint-broke-don’t-fix-it
The problem with Air India is a systemic and malignant archaic structure along with an aging fleet, breaking aircraft and a maintenance backbone that can’t keep up with industry standards reliability and product freshness. Not branding. In 2021 the Government handed over a ‘net-of-loss’ Air India to Tata and Singapore Airlines and it was expected that an Air India under private management and ownership with begin with addressing some of the glaring problems the airline faced. And Tata’s an expert with this, in the way they transformed TATA Motors and Tata Steel. This needed effort with adult supervision with Air India’s new management roll its sleeves up to fix the real problem ground up. Instead, the management chose to ‘modernize’ the airline with an inane branding exercise and took the ‘jugaad’ path to solving the dilapidated product image with a gradual and painstakingly slow fleet induction process that will span 5 years of aircraft deliveries from Airbus and Boeing. Air India is the only airline since it went to private ownership with the highest amount of recorded safety violations linked to financial penalties and fines by the DGCA. This was with training lapses, crew proficiency, maintenance reliability shortfalls and quality control. With 95% percent of Air India’s fleet being on average of 18 to 20 years old, sooner or later there was bound to be signs of a possible breakdown with reliability and quality assurance. And that’s what we saw in Ahmedabad.
Could Something Have been Done to improve AI 171 Crash Survivability?
What appears to have gone wrong with AI171 is a complete loss of engine power that prevented the aircraft from climbing and/or continuing flight leading to the aircraft dropping like a rock. Why this happened should form the core element of investigation for the multinational investigator delegation as everything from engine maintenance, Digital Engine Control System(FADEC) to the sudden loss of power at 600 ft will be scrutinized.
the very location and presence of India’s airports too are an utter disaster and an a clear apparent safety hazard during an emergency. Every Indian Airport today is surrounded by extreme urbanization with residential apartments, office blocks, colleges, hospitals and malls, and in during a sudden event of loss of power with any aircraft, there’s no way any aircraft can be put down safely. There’s a very good reason why most airports in Europe and Asia ban urbanization near and around airports to allow for better and safer controlled forced landings. And we know this when we take off or land from an airport in Europe and Asia, all that one sees is open farming agriculture fields with no obstacles that allow for safer and better controlled emergency landings.
Crack the Whip, Fix the House, Hold Those Accountable
The Air India Conundrum | The Government does not own Air India, Tata and SIA does. And its high time that those in Management are held accountable and responsible for this incident. Fixing Air India needs to bottom up, not top down ‘jugaad. The findings from the investigation needs to be put into immediate action, be it maintenance practices, phasing out an entire fleet or fixing the broken maintenance system that plagues Air India. Before Tata-SIA inducts more aircraft, it’s imperative that they establish a robust airline maintenance structure and system to support both existing aircraft and the new fleet.
Fix the House, India Airports Need a Shake up | With Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta and Bangalore nestled in the midst of dense urbanization, right now there’s a zero chance of crash survivability when the chips are down and a pilot can’t bring back the aircraft to the airport. India needs to relook all its airports and start making plans to relocate every airport as far away from dense urban catchments. This will be long, slow and painful, but it needs to be done
Crack the Whip, Hold Those Accountable | With over 10 regulators, Boeing and nearly 5 foreign Governments watching over the Incident and Accident Enquiry of Air India 171, and a crash in the heart of Gujarat, the home city of Prime Minister Modi, I reckon this time, we should see the most unbiased, neutral and fiercely independent investigation and Court of Inquiry, ever. With the world wanting to know what went wrong with the 787-8, factuality and prime facia evidence will be the lynchpin of the cause with what went wrong. The findings, such as they may be, has to be enforced, embedded and integrated into operations worldwide and those responsible must be held accountable should be indicted to the fullest extent of the law so that we never see such a crush ever.
India, the world, Air India, Airports and Safety Regulators have a lot of work to do. I hope the Government of India and Prime Minister Modi cracks the whip on this one and sets the standard for the world to follow.
(Mark D Martin is Founder & CEO of Martin Consulting, an aviation safety and consulting firm based in Asia. Views are personal.)
