Mangalore: DGCA's credibility questioned; Handing over of Air Crash Inquiry to other bodies demanded

Mangalore, June 6: Questioning the credibility of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Leo F Saldanha, the Coordinator of Environ Support Group, has demanded that the responsibility of investigation into the Mangalore air crash should be handed over to an impartial high level commission of inquiry or joint parliamentary committee.

Speaking to mediapersons on Saturday at a press conference in the city, Saldanha expressed fear that DGCA may bury the truth that led to the tragedy during the course of investigation.

“To ensure such incidents do not recur, we demand the Union government to order an impartial Commission of Inquiry or to a joint parliamentary committee into the reasons of this crash, especially investigating the absolute lack of conformance with basic runway design standards and emergency approach measures” he said.

He also threatened to lodge a criminal case against the Airport Authority of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA, holding them directly accountable for the tragedy, as they had ignored the earlier warnings by the environmentalists about the danger of table top run way.

”This was not an accident, but apparently the failure of officials in ensuring proper construction of the second runway at the airport resulted in the tragedy", he alleged.

“The DGCA, Airports Authority, Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Karnataka government had totally failed to ensure that the second runway design conforms to national and international standards”, he added.

To bolster his claim, Saldhana recalled that the ESG along with the Alliance Against Airport Expansion, Mangalore, struggled against the expansion of the Mangalore airport during the late 1990s.

A key concern raised was that the second runway in Mangalore could not meet the standards required in dealing with an emergency, particularly during landing and take-off. Saldanha alleged that even though alternative sites existed, the authorities proceeded obstinately to expand the airport, yielding to pressure from politicians, and business, real estate and hotel lobbies that benefited immensely from an airport at Bajpe.

When the authorities failed to heed this request, a couple of public interest litigations (PILs) were filed in the High Court and the Supreme Court challenging the construction in the late 90s.

"No one in authority cared to listen to our fervent pleas. This even when we demonstrated through a variety of representations that the site chosen for expansion at Bajpe was surrounded by deep valleys on three sides of the runway and did not provide for emergency landing areas as required,'' Saldhana said.

Environmentalist Arthur Pereira, Dalit activist Devdas and Krishnananda were among those present.