The United Nation’s aviation safety watchdog, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), is expected to conduct a safety audit of the Indian aviation sector ‘in a few months’, a senior government official said. “The audit was scheduled for June, but we sought postponement due to the severity of the second wave of COVID-19,” the official said.
The ICAO audits the aviation safety and aviation security oversight capacities of its 193 Member-States. These cover legislation, resources and other capacities which State governments establish to effectively implement the ICAO’s Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). There are eight audit areas which include aircraft operations, airworthiness of civil aircraft, aerodromes, air navigation services and accident and serious incident investigations, among others.
“We expect to improve our performance after the passage of the Aircraft (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which gives statutory powers to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. We have also implemented the ICAO’s recommendation to make the DGCA the licensing authority for Air Traffic Control Officers,” the official added.
The ICAO had carried out the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme for India in February 2018. The audit result showed that the country’s score declined to 57.44% from 65.82% earlier, placing India below Pakistan, Nepal and many other nations. However, subsequently, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the aviation regulator DGCA took corrective steps, following which the score improved to 74.
