PLAYING WITH FIRE
The report of SpiceJet Airlines another aircraft returning back to source destination due to technical snag is not at all a good sign for the Indian airline companies because despite the strictures by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aforementioned airline is not being able to cope up with its shortcomings making flying experience of hundreds of passengers horrible. There is a big question mark raised against the role played by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is responsible for ensuring safe skies in India because it has shown some kind of leniency in the case of this particular airline as despite show cause notice and restrain on plying entire fleet of aircrafts, the SpiceJet has failed to deliver flawless services. It is a matter of great concern that despite remaining on the scanner of DGCA, the SpiceJet flight that took off from Delhi for Nashik from the Indira Gandhi International Airport returned midway due to an ‘autopilot’ snag. It is, however, the good luck of the passengers that the Boeing 737 aircraft landed safely. The Indian aviation sector is witnessing turbulent times with reports of technical snags and mid-air emergencies becoming routine, forcing pilots to make emergency landings on a number of occasions in recent times, and raising questions about the quality of maintenance of aircrafts. It seems that the poor maintenance of aircrafts and an oversight of the necessary procedures laid down for aircraft maintenance are leading to the increasing number of such incidents in the Indian sky. Going by the poor track record of mid-air emergency and emergency landing of aircrafts in the last three-four months, one can say that DGCA should gird up loins to ensure that airlines operate in a safe environment. For now, it seems that the aviation regulator is not able to see through the problems and this is a major cause of concern. It is not only the case of SpiceJet as most of the airlines are trying to save money by not investing in spare parts and maintenance, and also not complying with the mandatory reporting to DGCA thus putting lives of people at grave risk. The case of SpiceJet has become the most typical one as confronting financial problems amid high fuel prices and rupee depreciation, its aircrafts have been involved in a series of incidents. There is a need for SpiceJet to mend its working culture because under present circumstances the airline is playing with fire as passenger safety is being compromised off and on.