 "Aviation ministry braces for ICAO audit")
The Union civil aviation ministry is preparing for a safety audit scheduled next month by a United Nations’ body in charge of the sector.
It appears the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is likely to do the audit from November 30, till December 10. Union civil aviation secretary R N Choubey had a review meeting on Wednesday in this regard with officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Airports Authority of India (AAI) and others.
Sources said the ministry had taken positive steps in addressing the issues of airport licensing, accident investigation and search & rescue operations. However, it might face a problem on the issue of air traffic management. “Many requirements related to ICAO surveillance have not been fulfilled by the directorate of air traffic management,” a senior government official said.
This will be the second audit of India's aviation safety oversight this year. The American watchdog, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), had done the first, restoring the country's safety rating (which it had earlier downgraded) in April. The ICAO audit will be more comprehensive than FAA's. It will look into parameters such as legislation, organisation, licensing, operation, airworthiness, accident investigation, air navigation and aerodromes.
"We are confident of performing well. We have taken several steps to address the issues and are fully prepared," said another senior ministry official.
The Union cabinet approved the creation of a post of Director General for the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) last Wednesday, a ministry official said. Presently headed by a senior DGCA official, it will function as an independent entity as required under the ICAO guidelines. The ministry has also been given a go-ahead to recruit 21 personnel at different levels in the AAIB.
Another big issue was on search and rescue, sources said. The ministry has formed a search and rescue board, headed by the aviation secretary. DGCA would soon issue a search and rescue manual.
The ministry is considering some changes to the rules such that airports owned and operated by the defence forces follow the ICAO norms. These are seven of these. At present, only airports managed by AAI have to comply with the rules, including the marking of runways, maintenance of these through friction testing, separation between runway and taxiway, and some others.
The ministry has further decided that air traffic controllers would not need to get licensed. “ICAO norms say if the state heads the air traffic controllers, no licensing is required,” said a source.
To address personnel issues, the ministry recruited 40-50 officials in the aerodrome department, sources said.
An ICAO downgrade will not have a direct impact on Indian airlines and the aviation regulator but could raise alarm bells among other countries’ authorities. For instance, an ICAO audit of DGCA in December 2012, which put India in its list of 13 worst-performing nations, had prompted FAA to conduct its own assessment of India’s compliance with global standards, under its International Aviation Safety Assessments programme. After finding several deficiencies, the FAA in January 2014 downgraded India’s safety oversight to category-II, implying it did not meet the minimum ICAO standards. However, this April, FAA restored India to category-I.
This will be the third time, after 2006 and 2012, that ICAO will audit India’s aviation safety oversight. In its 2006 audit, the UN body had highlighted 70 findings and recommendations. Among these were lack of an organisational structure in DGCA, shortage of trained personnel and effective mechanisms for resolution of safety concerns for passengers. According to sources, DGCA was supposed to work on 11 key areas of aviation safety, mainly related to air navigation services (ANS). In the ICAO 2013 Safety Report, India was still below the global average in two areas, organisation and ANS.
