The Air India aircraft at LGBI airport. File picture

Guwahati, June 15: The lone office of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in the Northeast is running with a skeletal staff without any air safety officer.

Official sources told The Telegraph that an air safety officer in Calcutta investigates all accidents for the whole of the Northeast.

In addition to accident/investigation work, officials of the air safety directorate also carry out surveillance inspection of airlines such as pre-flight medical check of crew, ramp inspection, load and trim check, besides in-flight cabin inspections.

The situation is dismal.

The DGCA office at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LBGI) Airport at Borjhar, the only international airport in the Northeast, has only one technical officer from the airworthiness directorate, two clerical staff and a driver.

Given the situation, the DGCA had been asked to increase its staff strength in the Northeast for better monitoring of air safety in the region.

According to a source, the three-member panel of experts headed by Air Marshal (retd) P.S. Ahluwalia, which probed last year’s chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh that claimed the life of Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu, had recommended an increase in the manpower of the DGCA in the Northeast.

Besides Ahluwalia, the other two members were former joint director general of DGCA P.K. Chattopadhyay and group captain (retd) T.V. Unnikrishnan.

The source said the panel’s report was published nearly a month ago.

The panel’s recommendation bears significance after a nose wheel of a Silchar-Guwahati Air India flight came off during take off last Sunday.

There were two chopper crashes in Arunachal Pradesh last year in which 24 persons lost their lives, including Khandu.

Apart from Guwahati, there is no DGCA presence in any other northeastern state, the source said.

The agency, however, maintains that this has not affected its functioning and flight safety checks are as stringent as ever since the regional office of DGCA in Calcutta takes care of air operations in the Northeast.

“Of the nine directorates of the DGCA, its Guwahati office has one officer only from the airworthiness directorate, namely, assistant airworthiness director Jayanta Ghosh,” the source said.

Ghosh refused to comment on the matter.

Duties of senior airworthiness officers include investigation of major defects in aircraft and determination of corrective actions, surveillance of the carriage of dangerous goods and periodic review of the airworthiness conditions and records of aircraft.

In terms of passenger volume, the LGBI Airport, according to 2011 data published by the Airport Authority of India, ranked as the 12th busiest airport in the country.

“If Guwahati is to be made the regional hub of aviation in the Northeast as announced in June last year by then civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi, then the DGCA will have to increase its staff strength in the region by posting officers from its other important directorates such as air safety, aircraft engineering, etc, to cater to the needs of the airports in the region,” he said.

“With the increased aircraft movement and different types of aircraft and varied problems faced by the airlines, the DGCA as a regulatory body should have trained aircraft maintenance engineers at all major airports to cross-check the certification issued by the airline engineer on the maintenance. This alone would ensure the safety of passengers,” the source said.

Besides LGBI, the other airports in the region are at Imphal, Silchar, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Agartala and Aizawl. The region also has a number of helipads, which are used for chopper services. The DGCA is also in charge of monitoring operations and maintenance of aircraft and choppers.

“There needs to be strict monitoring and control of air operations in the Northeast because the hilly terrain, coupled with sudden change in weather pattern, has always been a big challenge for pilots flying in the region. Incidentally, the erratic weather system and terrain have brought down many aircraft and choppers, including two in 2011 in Arunachal, in the region in the past,” the source said.