Government doing a ‘very thorough study’ of non-scheduled flight operators, uncontrolled airfields: Rammohan Naidu

The government is conducting a “very thorough study” of flight operations by non-scheduled operators and uncontrolled airfields to look at areas where steps need to be taken, according to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu.

Flight operations by Non-Scheduled Operators (NSOPs) have come under increased regulatory scrutiny in the wake of the fatal crash of a VSR Ventures-owned LearJet 45 plane that killed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others on January 28.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already initiated a special safety audit of NSOPs earlier this month.

Mr. Naidu told PTI that the Civil Aviation Ministry is doing a “thorough study” of the NSOPs, as well as the uncontrolled airfields.

Areas where something needs to be done with respect to NSOPs and uncontrolled airfields will be looked into, he said.

On January 28, VSR Ventures’ Learjet 45, carrying Pawar and four others, crashed near the Baramati airport, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is expected to very soon come out with its preliminary report on the fatal accident.

NSOPs are generally those entities that do not have a fixed schedule for operators and mostly operate chartered flights.

Baramati is an uncontrolled airfield, and traffic information is provided by instructors/pilots from the flying training organisations at that place.

An uncontrolled aerodrome is an aerodrome without a control tower, or one where the tower is not in operation, according to the website SKYbrary.

In a detailed statement on the LearJet 45 crash, the Ministry, on January 28, said the “aircraft was cleared to land on runway 11 at 0843IST; however, they did not give a readback of the landing clearance”.

“Next, the ATC saw the flames around the threshold of runway 11 at 0844 IST. The emergency services then rushed to the crash site,” it had said.

Meanwhile, the Minister, speaking to PTI on the sidelines of an event here this week, also said the focus is to boost airlines with smaller operations.

He was responding to a query on whether the ministry would be looking at having a “too big to fail” concept for the airlines, similar to the banking sector, in the wake of IndiGo operational disruptions in December.