THE new sunday express Voices Anand Neelakantan Ravi Shankar Ajai Sahni Sathya Saran Shampa Dhar-Kamath Swami Sukhabodhananda MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment JULY 13 2025 SUNDAY PAGES 12 I t started with a scream. 30,000 feet above the Arabian Sea, a cabin on an international flight plunged into chaos. Flight AI-129 was barely halfway to New York when the crew declared an emergency The . oxygen masks dropped—but not all of them. A child’s mask didn’t deploy Her mother began to cry . , banging the overhead panel. A man fainted across the aisle. A pressure leak. The plane turned mid-air, descending fast. Some passengers clutched hands with strangers. When the Dreamliner finally landed back in Mumbai, there were no injuries—at least not physically But the trauma lingered long after the wheels . touched the tarmac. And it wasn’t just the passengers asking: How did we let it get this bad? Free Fall At any given time, over 130 aircraft in India are grounded IndiGo has over 60 planes sitting idle There are 30 international airports, 10 customs airports, 139 domestic airports, and 21 greenfield airport sanctions Approximately 174 million passengers travelled from and within India by air in 2025 Currently, the Indian fleet consists of more than 860 aircraft The aviation sector contributes about 2.4 per cent to India’s GDP The sector generates around 4,00,000 direct jobs Over 10,000 posts remaining vacant across the DGCA, BCAS and AAI Over 800 vacancies are unfilled in the DGCA Pilots are supposed to clock 8 hours, with total duty time of not more than 10 hours By Suruchi Kapur-Gomes Four days later, at Mumbai airport, another near-miss. A flight bound for Hyderabad was moments from takeoff when a technician sprinted across the tarmac, waving his arms. The plane had been cleared for departure but with dangerously worn tyres. Maintenance records said they’d been replaced. They hadn’t. The pilot taxied back. Passengers were shuffled to another gate. No official statement was made. But that same evening, an internal Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) audit landed on the desks of senior aviation officials. Its findings were blistering: “Defects are repeatedly reappearing. Runway markings are faded. Airport equipment is operating without safety checks. Maintenance procedures are either ignored or forged.” Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad—the rot wasn’t local. It was national. Sonal R, a cabin crew member with over a decade of flying behind her, remembers when Indian aviation felt “competent”. “We used to run drills every quarter. Now it’s once a year, if at all,” she says. “They’ve slashed crew. We’re stretched thin. Sometimes we board without enough oxygen cylinders—we just pray there’s no emergency She .” recalls a flight to Leh earlier this year. Visibility was near zero. The pilot wasn’t CAT III-trained—a requirement for low-visibility landings. “We circled for 40 minutes, and eventually turned back. Passengers were furious. We just told new, that the pilot is trained, and that someone, somewhere, is actually watching. Because in the skies above India, turbulence is no longer the exception. It’s the rule. Bursting at the Seams Advocate Yeshwanth Shenoy has filed PILs—is on X (formerly Twitter) under Awake India—sounding alarms years ago. In 2020, he had warned, “If the judiciary does not change, what will bring about the change in Indian aviation? Nothing, not one airport is safe. So Calicut and Mangaluru (where planes crashed earlier) will repeat itself, but I put my bet on Mumbai. When it happens in Mumbai, it will not be an accident, it will be a catastrophe.” The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) and DGCA sprung into firefighting mode after the AI 171 crash in June, as speculations went wild—mechanical-technical failure, software malfunction, fuel loss, no flaps, RAT deployed, even sabotage. DGCA ordered 360-degree safety audits of the aviation sector—surprise checks at airports, airlines, ground staff, air traffic control, maintenance, repair and overhaul units, aircraft maintenance engineers not focused on snags, thrust reverser systems unserviceable, flap slat levers not locked, tyres worn out, training systems out of date, and more. It gave a deadline of seven days. Three AI officials were sacked, a show cause notice was sent to Air India various reforms to pivot—from legacy operations to a future ready tech-integrat, ed and safety-focused ecosystem—this mammoth task requires immense unwavering political will. Approximately 174 million passengers travelled from and within India by air in 2025, accounting for around 4.2 per cent of the global trot. Currently the Indian , fleet consists of more than 860 aircraft and accounts for around 2.4 per cent of the total global fleet. The aviation sector contributes about 2.4 per cent to India’s GDP generating around 4,00,000 direct , jobs, millions indirectly India’s ability to . sustain such growth without an autonomous statutory aviation regulator entrenched with specialists, and independent investigations, training, maintenance, policies, reforms in tandem with international norms is questionable. “Exponential growth is a double edged sword, and is becoming a game of numbers in a specialised industry like aviation,” says Captain Singh. According to Captain Sam Thomas, former Jet Airways trainer and president, Airline Pilots’ Association of India, India needs an independent statutory aviation regulator to operate free from ministerial/government control apart. “We need something similar to the FAA in the US, EASA in Europe and CAA in the UK. The body should comprise aviators and subject matter experts—not just IAS officers like those heading the DGCA,” he says. While India has adopted FAA The Turbulent State of Indian Aviation Despite India being the world’s third-largest aviation market, its infrastructure, regulatory oversight, and safety standards have failed to keep pace them it was weather—not that the captain wasn’t qualified to land,” she says. That same week, over 50 flights were diverted out of Delhi because some airlines hadn’t rostered CAT III-certified pilots during winter fog-a violation of protocol. The DGCA sent notices. Airlines shrugged. Reddit is where Indian flyers vent. And lately the stories are disturbing. , “Flight delayed by 115 minutes. Not 120. You know why? Because that’s the limit after which the DGCA mandates compensation.” “SpiceJet lied about a delay then , cancelled the flight. No one picked up the helpline.” At any given time, over 130 aircraft in India are grounded—not by weather, but by defective Pratt & Whitney engines. IndiGo has over 60 planes sitting idle. Airlines are scrambling to lease old jets, often in questionable condition, just to keep schedules running. A maintenance engineer, speaking anonymously says the , pressure is relentless. “We’re told to sign off defects that haven’t been fixed. If we protest, we’re transferred. Or worse— benched.” He shows a photo of a cracked engine mount on his phone. The repair was logged as “completed”. The plane flew the next morning. So here we are: a nation of 1.4 billion, third-largest aviation market in the world, but is flying on a wing and a prayer. The only thing keeping the system airborne is a mix of luck, denial, and jugaad. It’s no longer a matter of if something goes wrong. It’s a question of when—and how many people will be on board when it does. Until then, Indian passengers will continue to line up, board, buckle in, and hope that the oxygen masks drop when they’re supposed to, that the tyres are CEO Campbell Wilson. Only a part of the investigation report has been released. However, according to the aviation fraternity these issues have been evident , for years. Aviation is also slowly being privatised, which makes it complex, and profits remain the focus. Multiple authorities are controlling airports, aviation and security—but there exists a lackadaisical attitude compromising human life and security . To match the market’s breakneck pace, India has aggressively expanded: 30 international airports, 10 customs airports, 139 domestic airports, and 21 greenfield airport sanctions. Massive aircraft orders—300 (and counting)—are outpacing capacity of infrastructure, trained professionals, etc. So how do we fix a system deemed flailing by insiders? Can India afford such unchecked growth without foundational reforms and a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and safety protocols? Captain Amit Singh, founder, NGO Safety Matters, former airline safety head, emphasises, “Make reasonable profits such that you pay back or put back into the system to improve it rather than only maximising. The regulator can’t make decisions as it’s an arm of the ministry There is no technocrat. So much . is wrong. We need independent audits.” In FY 2023-24, the industry recorded over 150 million domestic passengers, and 66 million international passengers, post-COVID. This figure will double by 2030, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Passenger traffic grew 5.4 per cent domestically 11.4 , per cent internationally during 2024 with India’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ratings going from 102nd to 48th place. While there are protocols in letter, compliance is alarmingly lax. “Regulators like CAA and EASA enjoy a degree of independence. But DGCA is under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, can’t make decisions by itself,” Captain Singh adds. Potholed Runway Media reports have also highlighted how most global aviation and safety conferences rarely see representatives from the Indian regulator due to a lack of subject matter expertise. The ICAO’s 2023 Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme had flagged India’s shortcomings in personnel licensing, accident investigation transparency and airwor, thiness—giving the country an Effective Implementation score of just 58.2 per cent, below the global average of 70 per cent. A key observation was the DGCA’s failure to update its technical guidance material in line with the ICAO amendments, and the lack of an independent accident investigation body . “Make the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) fully independent with mandated public final reports within 12 months,” says Captain Augustine Joseph, President-CEO, Lancair, a US-based aviation executive and Indian Air Force veteran, also an FAA-certified MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) provider. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report highlights severe capacity gaps, with over 10,000 posts remaining vacant across the DGCA, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Airports Authority of India (AAI). The number of vacancies at the DGCA has doubled since 2021. Even with the exponential growth, Turn to page 2 “If a pilot is insisting that he is not well, and he is forced to fly Srinagar to Delhi, and he dies reaching Delhi, then it’s the system that is defunct.” “The bureaucratic quagmire in India is why aviation experts are not keen to set up maintenance, safety and training units in the country.” “The regulator can’t make decisions as it’s an arm of the ministry. There is no technocrat. So much is wrong. We need independent audits.” Prabhjot Paul Singh, Toronto-based aviation expert Captain Augustine Joseph, President-CEO, Lancair Captain Amit Singh, Founder, NGO Safety Matters