This coming Saturday will mark one month since the fateful crash of an Air India Dreamliner at Ahmedabad which claimed the lives of 260 people. A few grainy videos of the huge aircraft seemingly gliding helplessly onto the ground and erupting in a giant fireball shocked everyone. And that set of a wave of speculation about what caused the giant aircraft to crash.
All sorts of theories have been speculated about, some that make sense and others that are scarcely credible. Many theories on social media platforms seemed like nothing more than attempts at ‘engagement farming’ — that is getting social media users to view and ‘engage’ with content so as to earn money from the platform or from sponsors. Some theories straight-up blamed the pilots, others the aircraft.
The fact is that until the investigation, and particularly the read-out of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are examined by investigators, one should not speculate about what caused the crash. And while initial findings are often revealed within 30 days, and one expects the Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) of India to release such a report within the coming week, a final report can take years to compile even though some safety advisories and recommendations could be made sooner.
We need to have full trust in the AAIB and we know that they are not working alone. The United States’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the United Kingdom’s Air Accidents Investigation Board are assisting in the investigation. While there was a little bit of chaos regarding where the data from the flight recorders will be decrypted, it has emerged that the data has been recovered. And this gives me hope that the initial report will have some answers to what happened. It may not address the ‘why’ of the accident, but the relatives of the victims as well as the rest of the country will have some answers. After that, we should let the investigators complete their thorough investigation.
I am an avid viewer of a National Geographic show called Air Crash Investigation, and while that might sound a bit bizarre for someone like me who takes upwards of 50-60 flights annually for the past two decades, it actually makes me feel safer. This show proves that air investigations, including that of Air India 182, the bombing of the Boeing 747 Emperor Kanishka are investigated to the full. While justice might not have been done in the bombing of that aircraft thanks to incompetent Canadian investigators, at least we know what happened and how it happened.
And it isn’t just terrorist bombings, we know of several incidents, including incidents where everyone survived but critical flaws on the aircraft were discovered. The fact is that aviation safety is built on the back of human lives, and while that is unfortunate, air transport remains the safest form of long-distance travel there is. It has brought the world closer together and thanks to aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, connectivity is better than ever before.
Here is the thing, while for some of us flying is routine, if you think about it, it is quite a remarkable feat of mankind. Putting hundreds of people inside a thin aluminium tube, or in the case of the latest aircraft a carbon-fibre reinforced plastic tube, yes, the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 are ‘plastic planes’ in an environment that is hostile to human life, most of us would pass out within seconds at 40,000 feet and die within minutes, is a tremendous testament to human ingenuity. That said, the crash in Ahmedabad has raised several questions about aviation safety in India as it rightly should. There are issues that often come out in the media with the way crews are rostered without adequate rest and even aircraft maintenance in India. These have again come to the forefront after the crash. And while the media made a hue and cry about some flight cancellations after the crash, many of these were due to an abundance of caution as well as incidents in the past few weeks which closed airspace. Indian aircraft cannot operate over Pakistani airspace following ‘Operation Sindoor’ and that has added several hours of flight time for many flights between India, particularly for flights from Northern India. While we can question the fear-mongering, it is a natural result of the accident and several passengers have been scared enough to cancel their flights. But to repeat, air travel is still incredibly safe. I flew on multiple Air India Dreamliners earlier this year, including with my family and while the aircraft cabins showed signs of some wear and tear, I had no doubt of the safety of the planes. At least, I would continue to believe that until the accident investigation is complete. But given how critical safety is to aviation, I doubt that any airline, let alone Air India, would knowingly fly an unsafe aircraft because that would destroy passenger trust.
A matter of trust
I would continue to believe that until the accident investigation is complete. But given how critical safety is to aviation, I doubt that any airline, let alone Air India, would knowingly fly an unsafe aircraft because that would destroy passenger trust.
— By The Pioneer Staffer