Aviation experts weigh in on commercial airline safety after latest devastating Air India crash

News.com.au

2 days ago

The latest horrific airline crash that claimed the lives of all but one passenger has renewed calls for tighter aviation standards and safety.
Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 242 passengers when it crashed and exploded into flames shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in India's west on Thursday.
Among those killed include passengers on the flight, and people who were inside the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel when the plane crashed into it.
'Approximately 294 have died. This includes some students as the plane crashed on the building where they were staying,' Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, told Reuters.
The flight was headed to London Gatwick Airport and there were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian on-board, according to the airline.
Aviation safety expert and former pilot Shawn Pruchnicki believes incidents like Flight AI17 are part of a larger trend.
Now an assistant professor in Ohio State University's College of Engineering, Pruchnicki has decades of experience investigating crashes and understanding systemic failures.
'The safety buffer has eroded in recent years,' Pruchnicki told the Daily Mail.
He pointed to previous high-profile crashes, including the Boeing 737 MAX disasters in 2018 and 2019, as examples of how design flaws can go unaddressed until tragedy strikes.
'Standards at airplane manufacturers dropped, leading to the deaths of 346 people in two crashes,' he said.
Pruchnicki also raised concerns about the density of traffic in controlled airspace.
'If planes come within a couple of miles of each other, we start to worry,' he said.
He recounted a personal experience where a decision not to cross a runway likely prevented a collision, illustrating how razor-thin margins can separate routine operations from catastrophe.
Another factor compounding safety risks is a growing shortage of air traffic controllers.
'They are overworked and overstressed,' Pruchnicki said, noting that these workers carry the burden of thousands of lives daily. He also warned of airlines promoting under-experienced pilots too quickly, especially in smaller regional carriers.
However, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the five-year average fatality risk rate improved from 0.28 (2011–2015) to 0.10 for the period 2020–2024.
This means that, statistically, an individual would need to travel by air every day for over 15,000 years to experience a fatal accident.
In 2019, the Aviation Safety Network estimated the fatal accident rate at one per nearly 2 million flights, highlighting significant improvements in aviation safety over the years.
However, data from the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives indicates that the number of aviation incidents and fatalities can fluctuate year by year. For instance, in 2019, there were 578 fatalities from 125 incidents, while in 2020, fatalities decreased to 463 from 90 incidents.
'Alarming impact' on aviation industry
Another aviation expert suggested earlier this year that the Covid years that engulfed the world has a lot to answer for when it comes down to what experience is left in the air.
'You want to go back and look at the effect of Covid,' Neil Hansford, who has more than 30 years experience in the aviation industry, told news.com.au.
'That two years really precluded pilot training, and it wasn't only the pilot training that didn't get done … but the older folk chose to either be furloughed or retire.
'So a lot of experience at the top end of the scales disappeared out of the industry … you lost a hell of a lot of training too.'
Meanwhile, researcher Dr. Rajee Olaganathan from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, released a string of findings in 2022 around the relationship between the Covid shutdown and pilot skill.
Her findings essentially focused on how those two years had an 'alarming impact' on pilot proficiency.
'What surprised me was the level of skills deterioration over such a short duration,' said the study's principal investigator, adjunct professor Dr. Rajee Olaganathan, citing a 50 per cent increase in pilot errors following the pandemic-related shutdown of summer 2020.
'Skill knowledge is acquired slowly through related experience and practice. When flying hours are reduced, it will have an effect on the pilots' skills.'
The highest reduction in global flight operations during the pandemic occurred in May 2020, when services reduced 70.6% compared to the level of service one year prior. In the United States alone, that translated to a total of 532,834 fewer flights than in May 2019.
'Covid has got a lot to contribute to worldwide standards,' Mr Hansford said.
'In Australia we are well through it and well on the other side, particularly because we don't have the weather excesses.
'Because of the size of the country, we fly a lot of sectors and people have to get a lot of experience. That's why you find Australian pilots, everywhere you go, the Aussie expertise is sought after,
'It's hard to get a licence here. We are so strict on our student pilot standards to get their commercial pilot licence. Virgin and Qantas, they have such high standards.'
'But losing those two years to Covid, has put a load on all levels of training whether it be manual training or pilot training. The world lost two years.'
Sole survivor's miracle escape
Forty-year-old Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British citizen and father of one, emerged from the rubble in an astonishing turn of events after his plane crashed into a fireball.
His family have said he has 'no idea' how he survived. It's been reported Mr Ramesh's brother was also on the doomed flight.
Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah has visited Mr Ramesh in hospital.
Footage from the incident showed a man walking away from the crash site with blood on his face but seemingly superficial cuts and bruises as well as torn clothes.
A boarding pass from the scene shows Mr Ramesh was in seat 11A of the Dreamliner. According to Air India's seat map this is in the first row on economy right next to an exit.
'Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' Mr Ramesh is reported as saying by new outlet The New Indian Express.
'There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran'.
'There were pieces of the plane everywhere.'