The plane crash in Calicut has revived the questions regarding safety compliances and transparency in the fulfillment of air regulations. The Kozhikode airport has a tabletop runway as it is located on the top of a hill. An aviation safety report submitted to Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee in 2011 highlights that the runway has a steep downslope that has 200 feet deep gorges on both side with no safety area. In 2016, a Writ Petition was filed by Adv Yashwant Shenoy before the High Court of Kerala to bring to the court's attention that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had failed to fulfil set standards and quality checks. An affidavit filed by the petitioner records that the AAI and DGCA have consistently suppressed the truth before the Court. Advocate Shenoy, who has studied Aviation Safety in depth, contended that instead of simply producing the Safety Audit Reports, the AAI and the DGCA has produced the Action Taken Report. It further points out that between 2011 and 2016, not a single safety audit report was submitted by either the AAI or the DGCA for the Cochin, Calicut and Trivandrum airport. Speaking with The Leaflet, Advocate Yashwant Shenoy explained that DGCA was asked to file safety audit reports but since they have not conducted safety audits periodically they filed action taken reports instead. Courts are misled by the authorities who submit Action Taken Reports instead of Safety Audit Reports as courts do not possess the technical expertise to know the difference between the two. Safety reports are the ones that essentially flag the safety concerns for the aircraft and the ground staff. "It was not a hard task to obtain these reports if the rules were followed by the Respondents. The fact is that these reports could have been obtained at a click of a button and yet it was shown as if it was an uphill task. This clearly show's how prepared the Respondents are or it has to be implied that they are deliberately hiding these reports from this Hon'ble Court" the petitioner's affidavit asserted. The petitioner also raised suspicion over the fact that the Action Taken Reports submitted by AAI and DGCA shows different dates of inspection. Most of these reports have no officer's signature or name. They also do not reveal the airport for which the Action Taken Report was for. These, according to the petitioner, were all attempts to confuse the Court with technicalities. "This is only the beginning. In aviation everything you do matters. All these lapses repeatedly occur because the system has been manipulated by the authorities. Now the whole world is watching" said Advocate Yashwant Shenoy in reference to Kozhikode Air India Express crash. .Read Affidavit here:.[pdfviewer]https://migrate.theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/YS-AFFIDAVIT-DATED-11JUNE17-IN-KHC-WP-21085-OF-2016-1.pdf[/pdfviewer] Image Source ANI.
