NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will no longer be the three-in-one investigator-prosecutor-judge combine when it comes to investigating serious air mishaps.
The government on Wednesday issued an order to set up an independent panel under the civil aviation ministry that will take help from independent experts to investigate accidents and serious incidents. The panel will conduct the probe independent of the DGCA. The demand for having an independent investigator gained momentum after last year's Mangalore crash and the recent spate of incidents in Pawan Hans. The accident investigation committee will have five officers apart from independent resource personnel whose help they can take. The panel will classify a mishap as accident or serious incident as this rating has serious impact on the airlines insurance premium and has been suspected of being manipulated in the past, said a senior official.
Under the new system, reports of any mishap will be sent to the DGCA along with a copy to the panel. The panel will also follow up implementation of the safety recommendations made with every probe report. It will also advise the DGCA from time to time on accident prevention steps, said sources.
The government studied various models for deciding the shape of the independent probe panel. Usually probe panels are kept away from the department whose accidents they would probe to have a fair and independent report with low chances of manipulation. For instance, the agency probing railway mishaps comes under the aviation ministry.
The demand for a probe panel arose after the Mangalore crash. In many cases, accidents happen due to faulty rules or practices of the regulatory agency and parent ministry governing that sector. Any air mishap will have to be probed keeping that factor in mind. So as long as the DGCA conducted probes, the question if it would examine any possible lapses always remained in people's minds. For this reason, the government has set up independent probe panels to examine big crashes like last year's Mangalore crash, said a senior pilot.
The government on Wednesday issued an order to set up an independent panel under the civil aviation ministry that will take help from independent experts to investigate accidents and serious incidents. The panel will conduct the probe independent of the DGCA. The demand for having an independent investigator gained momentum after last year's Mangalore crash and the recent spate of incidents in Pawan Hans. The accident investigation committee will have five officers apart from independent resource personnel whose help they can take. The panel will classify a mishap as accident or serious incident as this rating has serious impact on the airlines insurance premium and has been suspected of being manipulated in the past, said a senior official.
Under the new system, reports of any mishap will be sent to the DGCA along with a copy to the panel. The panel will also follow up implementation of the safety recommendations made with every probe report. It will also advise the DGCA from time to time on accident prevention steps, said sources.
The government studied various models for deciding the shape of the independent probe panel. Usually probe panels are kept away from the department whose accidents they would probe to have a fair and independent report with low chances of manipulation. For instance, the agency probing railway mishaps comes under the aviation ministry.
The demand for a probe panel arose after the Mangalore crash. In many cases, accidents happen due to faulty rules or practices of the regulatory agency and parent ministry governing that sector. Any air mishap will have to be probed keeping that factor in mind. So as long as the DGCA conducted probes, the question if it would examine any possible lapses always remained in people's minds. For this reason, the government has set up independent probe panels to examine big crashes like last year's Mangalore crash, said a senior pilot.
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