Demand for immediately constituting an independent Pakistan Transportation Safety Board (PTSB) was raised by speakers keeping in view two deadly air accidents which occurred in Pakistan in the last two years, at the safety seminar organised by Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (Palpa) here recently.
The air accidents, which took away 279 valuable lives, made some to rethink about the safety of our airspace. That was the time for the authorities to appear and play their due role outside the box for making air travelling safe for public. Besides the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), other stakeholders also came forward feeling the responsibility to suggest safety measures lest such bad incidents reoccur.
The seminar was part of Palpa's efforts to discharge this responsibility of aviation safety. Regretfully, however, it was disappointing to notice that neither the major stakeholder, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), send its representation to the seminar, nor Airblue and Bhoja Air had their representation to express sorrow on the event that made so many families to regret for their whole lives for sending their members on their not-fit-for-flying planes.
The seminar was a success to the extent that a huge number of people involved with the aviation safety participated. Most importantly, it was attended by the chief of national airline that has a very big share in safety. A plausible number of pilots, aviation lawyers, aviation managers, media representatives etc were also part of the programme.
The speakers were of the opinion that PTSB should have representations from Palpa, Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs), and Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan (SAEP), and make the board responsible for investigating incidents/accidents and for implementing any corrective action that is necessary.
The most important address was of Curt Lewis, who is currently president/owner of Curt Lewis & Associates, LLC - a consulting firm which specialises in aviation safety, accident investigation and reconstruction, and airport and aircraft security. With 35 years of safety experience as a professional pilot, safety engineer/director, and air safety investigator, he said Pakistan like many other places in the world was facing infrastructure issues, and to make things better it has to effectively implement better safety management systems.
Safety management systems are simply to allocate your money and resources against risks. "Safety management systems can be made unnecessarily complicated, but simplicity is the key to make intelligent decisions as how to manage risks," opined Curt Lewis & Associates President, who served with American Airlines/AMR Corporation for 17 years.
On the occasion, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Chairman Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman (Retd) quite rightly suggested having more and more people educated on aviation safety and there should be a coherent and organised initiative on aviation safety, which was a new subject in Pakistan. According to him there is a need to lay a lot of emphasis on human resources which is a basic factor in safety, including aviation safety, and data analysis and management is important that must be promoted to avoid repeating mistakes that cause accidents.
One of the speakers at the seminar was former Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan who talked at length about the 'Legal Aspect of Aviation Safety' in which he informed that there are three major laws that govern aviation sector in Pakistan. Section 5(II) of Pakistan CAA Ordinance 1982 states that "The Authority shall from time to time prepare for the approval of the Federal Government five-year plans for the development of infrastructure for the promotion of safe, efficient, adequate, economical and properly co-ordinated civil air transport service and control and regulate civil aviation activities in Pakistan."
But, he suggested, there were three aspects which needed to be altered for the law to be adequate for aviation safety: Update the primary law in the light of international conventions and standards, prioritising aviation safety, with severe implications in failing aviation safety; having a separate investigation board for accidents for correct and unbiased reports; and CAA should be a proper regulatory body without the influence of service providers.
The former Attorney General and an advocate of the Supreme Court deliberated that some sections of the CAO 1960 do not reflect highly upon the priority of aviation safety. And the law that provides a framework for aviation law in Pakistan has not been regularly amended so as to keep in tune with international aviation laws.
He said that section 4 of the ordinance empowered the federal government to work in line with international conventions, but in failing to do so, there was no penalty which was provided, therefore, such a lack did not ensure strict adherence to implementing international treaties. "The CAO 1960 is the oldest document applicable to civil aviation in Pakistan. It has become an obsolete legal document in the context of aviation safety. The Ordinance of 1960 has lost its usefulness and a number of its provisions are either not relevant at all, or contain outdated requirements, terminology and wording. It does not contain adequate provisions on aviation safety. Hence, except a few provisions this law is redundant and safety being an ongoing problem, is not prioritised as it should be, in this primary legislation," he added.
Palpa President Captain Suhail Baluch in his speech stressed that air safety continued to gain grave concerns and importance in the ever growing global density of passenger travel and aircraft movement and no effort in this regard could be enough because the chain could be just as strong as its weakest link.
Since the pilot is the main tool in this safety chain, and this can by gauged by the fact that CAA blamed in its report captain of Airblue flight for the deadliest air crash in the history of the country, Palpa felt the responsibility to hold true to its commitment to enlighten and inculcate the culture of aviation safety among the travelling public and aviation related personnel and organisations in Pakistan.
He said that professional safety in any field and more so in aviation was a continuous effort and any slackness at any stage could result in disastrous situations. "Hence the need to regularly update, adapt and adopt to international standards; which themselves periodically change as more modern equipment and procedures are continually put in place," he said.
Though, he admitted, Palpa alone couldn't safeguard the interest of flight safety in Pakistan and its efforts alone couldn't yield necessary results without the active participation and consultation of both PIAC management and the CAA.
He mentioned the association of Palpa with International Federation of Airline Pilots' Association (IFALPA) and International Transport Federation (ITF). Through these bodies they have access to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), International Air Transport Association (IATA), Industrial Accident Prevention Association (IAPA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of United States, and Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA); and also to the major aircraft manufacturers like Boeing, Airbus and ATR.According to him this connection helps them procuring necessary and important feedback from all major aviation research findings. "From my side, I want to add that we should not without prior investigation term any aircraft accident as a pilot error. First of all let me say that if anything, it may be classified as human error at best. When we say human error, we need to investigate a whole chain of events which may have led to the accident. I request to the very few so-called aviation specialist not to jump to conclusion without the findings determined through an independent inquiry," reasoned the Palpa President.
In the end it was Masood Karim, Executive Director Aviation and Professional Consulting, and also an aviation safety consultant, who called for the adoption of systematic safety systems because through risk management we move to action where we need standardised systems in place with the help of sound evaluation. He was of the opinion that there was a need to identify risks through indicators, reports, and data to assure safety with better training and development.
Undoubtedly the seminar was a good initiative which should have been taken long ago, but there is still ample time to set things right. Now, the only thing which needs to be done on war footing basis is to accumulate all the expertise of all stakeholders in the aviation safety for better results. There should be no compromise on safety if we deem our people the ones more important than anything else.
With this seminar, a hope has emerged that there are people who want to work for making systems better in the country. They are serious and they feel their responsibility to make air travelling in Pakistan safe for both common people and those who are in decision making process.