A pilot association has urged the government and the civil aviation regulator to suspend operations in high-risk conflict zones in Gulf countries until a centralised and authoritative risk assessment is conducted amid the West Asia crisis.
The Airline Pilots’ Association of India (Alpa India) raised this demand in a letter to the secretary in the civil aviation ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), citing the risk to the safety of passengers, flight crew and aircraft.
The airspace in the Gulf region has been disrupted frequently owing to the ongoing war. The letter cited three incidents where civilian aircraft were shot down by belligerents such as the US, Israel and Iran in past conflicts.
Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the US in 1988, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was downed by Israel in 1973, and Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by Iran in 2020. All three countries claimed that the aircraft were mistakenly identified as retaliatory missiles.
The pilot association has flagged concerns about commercial airlines operating flights in the Gulf region, stating that they lack the requisite intelligence, surveillance capabilities or geopolitical risk-assessment infrastructure to evaluate threats in active conflict environments.
“Operating flights into, or in close proximity to, an active war zone constitutes a serious and unacceptable risk to the safety of passengers, flight crew, and aircraft. In our considered view, such decisions amount to wilful endangerment of human life,” Alpa India stated.
Delegating this responsibility to individual operators exposes flight crew and passengers to potentially catastrophic risks without a robust and uniform safety framework, the association said, urging the civil aviation ministry and the DGCA to intervene.
The association demanded that the aviation regulator immediately review and suspend operations into identified high-risk conflict zones until a centralised and authoritative risk assessment was conducted, especially in light of the worsening situation.