Events of 2023 involving India’s aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), left many in the sector convinced that the rot in this organisation runs so deep that it might be in the country’s interest to start on a new slate. In fact, with two new slates but more on this later.
To elaborate, after a series of crashes at flying school Redbird, an elaborate racket involving a top DGCA official came to light. On November 22, 2023, the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) suspended Anil Gill, a director in DGCA, by order from the President, while ordering an enquiry into his misdeeds during his tenure. Prior to this, on October 27, a total of six officials, including Gill, were transferred overnight after a case of corruption involving them came to light.
The story begins eight years before these events. In June 2015, Captain Anil Gill, a pilot who had served as an instructor for flying schools in Haryana, applied for the position of deputy director of flying training in the DGCA and got the job. Soon after he established himself in his post, he allegedly set up two companies, each with three or four directors, all members of his extended family. In a blatant case of conflict of interest, these two companies acquired old trainer aircraft at throwaway prices and leased them at exorbitant rates to Redbird, a flying training school in Karnataka. Post the crashes, all these connections came to light and it was further revealed that the rates at which the aircraft were leased to the flying academy exceeded the purchase price of the planes! Not only was Gill exploiting his position as deputy director to his and his family’s advantage, he was also favouring Redbird, the school he was in cahoots with, over other players in the sector. Without going into the details — the whole episode can only be encapsulated in a short book — suffice to say that further investigations by the DGCA and government authorities revealed enough evidence of connivance and malpractice. Action against Gill and those complicit was swift.
A smaller incident, again in 2023, caused a few ripples. In this case, the DGCA terminated the services of a chief flight operations inspector, who was on deputation from Air India, overnight and with no clear explanation. Much speculation accompanied the termination and there is still no clarity on why it was required.
Readers should note here that the DGCA has never been completely free of allegations of corruption, incompetence, or a combination of the two. In 2012, the government sacked the then director general of civil aviation, EK Bharat Bhushan, for, in fact, being diligent in his duties and asking errant airlines to pay their dues to employees; his argument was that unmotivated and stressed staff in the airlines could be a safety hazard. The sacking was wrongful, and many condemned the action both at the time and subsequently. Still, very little was done at a systemic level to ensure it doesn’t happen again. DGCA officials now treat airlines with kid gloves, fearing for their own jobs and seniority.
No matter which government has been in power, this regulatory body has been wracked by allegations of corruption, nepotism and collusion. In addition, the regulator’s inability and incompetence in taking corrective action post air-related incidents and accidents has come under scrutiny from time to time. In January 2014, the United States (US) Federal Aviation Administration downgraded India’s safety ranking, which then prevented Indian carriers from adding flights to the US. This was upgraded only in April 2015.
Much of the DGCA’s inability to cope has been due to factors outside its control, but the brunt of it has been borne by pilots and smaller operators such as flying schools — those who lack the heft the bigger scheduled airlines invariably carry. Almost all through its history, there have been allegations of DGCA officials being in cahoots with the larger airlines in the country and acting at the behest of these. Pilots and other stakeholders have almost always alleged that there’s a lot of petty corruption too.
If allegations of petty corruption have always plagued the regulator, so have those of incompetence. A vehement and exacting critic of the regulatory body — which became statutory in 2020 — former IndiGo vice president Shakti Lumba who has, in previous interviews, argued that the DGCA is in a time warp and voiced many concerns echoed by the industry as a whole, on the functioning, composition, effectiveness and competence of the organisation.
A lot has changed since then. The DGCA is on Twitter, has an official email and has digitised its functioning to almost 75-80%, according to officials in the agency. Many argue that it has vastly improved the functioning.
With air traffic hitting new highs, the regulator has been very short staffed and to address this, the government recently approved the hiring of 400 new staffers, taking the strength from 1,000 to 1,400. Although the complaint of the industry has been that the DGCA remains filled with officials with scant knowledge of aviation and aircraft, it is also a fact that getting into the DGCA is difficult and many of the staffers hold engineering and other degrees from premier institutions.
Under pressure to perform and at least outwardly show change, the last two director generals have acted with alacrity in some instances, taking the sector totally by surprise. A recent instance was when Gill was removed from duty within hours of the corruption case coming to light and action against him was initiated soon after. Swift action, alacrity and transparency are words that have been alien to the regulator since the word go.
But what India may really need is not one regulator, but two new aviation regulatory bodies: A safety regulator that focuses on just this aspect and that is fully independent of the ministry of civil aviation, an independent civil aviation authority (CAA) like in many countries and jurisdictions, and a passenger regulatory authority (PRAI). With more Indians taking to the air and with no one looking closely at the interests of passengers, the DGCA is pulled into finding a solution or managing everything from rising fares to passenger misbehaviour to delays or any transgressions by the operators. It has become the nation’s favourite punching bag for all the ills afflicting this space, which is a safety threat in itself since the body in charge of keeping flying incident- and accident-free is perpetually distracted by matters unrelated to it.
The structure, shape and design of both the new regulators, safety and passenger, needs to be carefully thought out and designed.
Anjuli Bhargava is a senior journalist who writes on governance, infrastructure and the social sector.The views expressed are personal
