Staffing gaps in aviation safety

A Dibrugarh-bound flight aborting landing at Dibrugarh airport after experiencing a technical issue and a minor fire triggered by a passenger’s power bank in a Dimapur-bound flight but promptly extinguished by crew members put the spotlight on aviation safety and gaps in its management. Aviation safety protocols are dynamic and evolve through technological innovation, but regulatory reforms play the most crucial role in ensuring that air travel becomes safer through the bridging of all gaps. Official data lays bare a jarring truth about the aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), continuing to reel under a persistent shortage of technical and regulatory personnel. The regulator grappling with a severe shortfall of nearly 50% of the required manpower, as revealed in a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, when the industry has been witnessing rapid expansion in infrastructure and aircraft and a rapid rise in the number of air travellers, presents a deeper crisis brewing in aviation safety oversight. The parliamentary panel on Transport, Tourism and Culture issued a timely caution that this deficit is not a mere administrative statistic; it is a critical vulnerability that exists at the very heart of India’s safety oversight system. It found that of the total sanctioned strength of 1063 posts, only 553 are currently filled. The committee’s word of caution – “While the Ministry has expressed an intention to increase the staffing level to approximately 850 within the next six months, the current gap remains a matter of grave concern” – calls for expeditious measures by the government to ensure DGCA gets the required manpower at the earliest. Apart from filling the current sanctioned strength, future requirements of the regulatory body to match the rapid expansion of the aviation sector demand a dynamic and forward-looking recruitment strategy. Recurrence of safety issues cannot be ruled out if the regulatory oversight system remains chronically affected by understaffing. The fact that the committee’s recommendation to grant the DGCA statutory and administrative autonomy, with full control over its recruitment and administrative functions, has been lying unimplemented for more than a decade tells more about systemic apathy toward aviation safety.  The committee pointed out a critical gap in the DGCA recruitment. Unlike its international counterparts, the DGCA remains entirely dependent on government allocations and procedural controls, making it impossible to attract and retain the highly skilled professionals—experienced pilots, airworthiness inspectors, and flight operations specialists—who are essential for conducting credible surveillance of the private aviation industry. Another critical gap in aviation safety in the country observed by the Committee, and which calls for urgent measures, is that many Air Traffic Controllers (ATCO) are reportedly operating under prolonged and fatiguing duty schedules. The Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild (India), the professional body representing licensed ATCOs, apprised the Committee of a “persistent and serious shortage” of controllers at numerous airports, the report states. This deficit, according to the Guild, is so severe that it has reportedly led to the closure or merging of critical operational units, such as approach and area control sectors, particularly during night hours. This practice places an undue workload and immense mental strain on the limited number of ATCOs available to manage the traffic, adds the report. This has pressed the alarm bells over troubling complacency in aviation safety, which has become more complicated as airspace congestion increases with cut-throat competition by airliners to maximise their share in all viable routes. The Committee has rightly warned that the chronic fatigue of ATCOs directly and significantly increases the probability of controller error, which could manifest in various dangerous ways, including a loss of standard separation between aircraft, a runway incursion, a delayed or incorrect response to an emergency, or a complete breakdown in situational awareness. The ATCO shortage is, therefore, as concluded by the Committee, not just a staffing or administrative issue; it is an active and ongoing threat to the safety of the flying public, and the government persistently ignoring this caution could prove costly. The parliamentary panel’s recommendation to the Ministry to direct the AAI to undertake a comprehensive, airport-wise staffing audit to scientifically assess ATCO requirements based on current and projected traffic levels, airspace complexity, and operational hours deserves prioritised attention and result-orientated action to remove the bottlenecks. The panel’s warning that “the current trajectory of uncoordinated growth between fleet size and infrastructure capacity is unsustainable and is pushing the aviation system towards its saturation point” calls for a comprehensive and dynamic safety audit of all airports. Particularly in the northeast region, where subsidised flight operation under the UDAN scheme and growing demand for more flights have led to the induction of an increasing number of flights on different routes but airport infrastructure is not fully developed, a transparent safety audit is crucial not just to boost passengers’ confidence but also to ensure that air travel is safe and free from all worries of lack of safety compliance.