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Air traffic management foggy

A. Ranganathan

The outdated procedures in vogue at Indian airports to tackle regular occurrences such as a fog have to be replaced with modern practices.

IN CIVIL aviation parlance, ATM stands for Air Traffic Management. But in India, the more appropriate expansion would be air traffic mismanagement. The recent statement of a Ministry of Civil Aviation official that airlines who do not train their pilots to operate in CAT IIIB (Instrument Landing Category IIIB) conditions would not be permitted to fly to Delhi next year exposes the bankruptcy of professional knowledge of flight safety norms. Some introspection by the official would have revealed that the fault lies within. On December 25, 2005, a Canadian private airlines 737 aircraft suffered damage to its wing tip while attempting to land in CAT IIIB conditions. The airline had wide experience in operating under foggy conditions. And, we are trying to force airlines with inexperienced crew to fly into unknown territory.

Every time a fog envelops Delhi, the airport shuts down. This happens every year and profound statements are made to the effect that the country's airports will get modern facilities for helping aircraft land in zero-visibility conditions. But memory is short and things are forgotten when winter passes. When Mumbai shut down for three days, due to the deluge, we heard similar statements from the Civil Aviation Minister. The authorities opened the airport promptly even though it was totally unsafe. And, the national carriers, Air India and Indian Airlines, obliged the powers-that-be and started operations. Everyone is aware of the embarrassing over-run of a Boeing 747 in Mumbai. In Delhi too, during the fog, the Ministry trumpets that Air India and Indian Airlines are the only operators that can land in CAT IIIB conditions. Is it not strange that many international carriers who land in CAT IIIC conditions outside India, opted not to use the CAT IIIB facility? A few years ago, the International Federation of Airline Pilots Association declared Delhi airport unsafe. Are all the ground-based aids mandatory for CAT IIIB operations, fully compliant with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements?

In the aviation world, India is way down in the implementation of safety standards. Occasionally, on a foggy day, a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official states that on-the-spot extension of flight and duty time will be granted to airlines' crew to complete a flight. He may do well to study the data given by the Flight Safety Foundation and the National Transportation Safety Board of USA. It has been established that more than 70 per cent of accidents have been attributed to fatigue!

Unwanted details

Many of the rules and procedures followed in India are completely outdated; they contain more restrictions and unwanted details than required. The DGCA circular makes it mandatory for all operators to qualify for CAT II initially, operate under CAT II rules for a whole year before progressing to CAT III. This increases the cost of training due to duplication. What the DGCA is not aware of is that the training required for CAT II or CAT III is the same. The only difference is in the call-outs during the approach and landing. The crew qualification requirement is also tied up with unnecessary details. The circular lays down a minimum of 500 hours for a captain and 750 hours for a co-pilot on the type of aircraft in which CAT II or CAT III qualification is required, before they are taken up for CAT II or CAT III training. This ensures that a new captain or co-pilot takes almost a year before he can qualify for training in CAT II or CAT III conditions. Moreover, if for any reason, one of the crew falls sick, the flight cannot progress unless both the pilots are qualified. Hence, the Civil Aviation official's statement that any airline whose crew are not trained for CAT IIIB conditions will not be allowed into Delhi is nothing short of rhetoric. Is he going to shut out all new airlines?

The chaos in Delhi and Mumbai is not the operators' fault. The airports are just not capable of handling all the additional flights that come in. It is not enough if licences are granted for new airlines and additional aircrafts. Our airport infrastructure is pathetic and building new parking bays does not solve the problem. Our air traffic system can handle only 15 to 20 movements in an hour. It requires a minimum separation of almost 10 miles between landing aircraft. Thus, there will be a minimum of 4 minutes time between landing aircraft, provided all of them are jets. With turboprop aircraft thrown in, the number of movements decreases. Every additional aircraft introduced into the Mumbai or Delhi skies will result in delays of over 30 to 45 minutes. This translates into approximately 2,000 to 4,000 kg of fuel for each aircraft in the sky. The delays are further compounded when a VVIP aircraft carrying the Prime Minister or the President enters the Delhi or Mumbai airspace. The loss to the nation and the airlines, in terms of unnecessary fuel burnt, runs into several crores of rupees in precious foreign exchange. The need is for an entirely new airport for Mumbai but the Government prefers to spend crores of rupees in upgrading the present one.

The experience levels of pilots have dropped but we try to force them to operate in an unsafe environment. The solution is try and woo the experienced Indian captains flying abroad; they are all highly qualified and have experience of operating under CAT III conditions. Unfortunately, the DGCA has made it difficult for them to return. The red carpet is rolled out for expatriate pilots but Indian pilots who hold a valid ICAO licence issued by a foreign country and who wish to have their Indian licences reissued are required to undergo the tests they they had already passed. No wonder, they are reluctant to return. The raising of the retirement age for pilots to 65 and the lowering of the minimum experience level required for new captains and co-pilots will ensure safer operations.

The second solution to streamline air traffic into all the airfields is to switch over to satellite-based navigation immediately. Over-dependence on outdated ground-based approach aids and procedures places us 50 years behind the rest of the world. China, which operates flights into airfields such as Lhasa located in difficult mountainous terrain, has switched to the RNP/RNAV (Required Navigation Performance/Area Navigation) procedures. These have an error of just 30 feet as compared to that used in India, the outdated VOR-based approaches with an acceptable error of 4 degrees. The visibility requirement for Lhasa that used to be more than 10 km has been reduced to less than 1,000 metres with the introduction of the RNP procedure. If RNP approaches are introduced in all Indian airfields, we can have uninterrupted all-weather operations throughout the year.

The DGCA has to understand these modern procedures and their usefulness in accelerating air traffic and take the initiative to introduce them. If the DGCA does, we could have flights into Kashmir and the Himalayan region with visibility criteria of as low as 550 metres. But then, the Civil Aviation policy is Delhi-centric and other airfields to which passengers travel are not important enough. If Indian aviation is to progress, the authorities have to change their mindset of 1934 vintage. The complete rules and procedures book has to be replaced with a new and modern one.

(The writer, an airline pilot with 19,000 hours' experience, specialises in accident prevention studies.)

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