MUMBAI, MARCH 25: The Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Chaman Lal Gupta has stressed on the ``human factors'' concerning air safety, since statistics reveal that nearly 80 per cent of all accidents are due to human error. In his inaugural addrress at the seminar on `Human Factors Affecting Safe Airline Operations', organised by the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Friday, the Minister reiterated that the emphasis has shifted from individual performance to team work in the field of aviation. ``Earlier, accident rate was about 4 per million departures. Fortunately, the accident rate has now dropped to 1.5 accidents per million departures. But we must still strive to improve safety standards,'' said Gupta. He added that the Civil Aviation Ministry has decided to form an action group of regulators and representatives from various aviation bodies to periodically review the situation. ``The Ministry is also encouraging NGOs like the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) to work in tandem with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for this purpose. FIP has also been assured assistance from the Ministry for their research project on `Human Responses to Warning in an Emergency','' stated the Minister. This research project, involving senior Air Force officers and scientists, has already won accolades from international organisations like the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). While congratulating FIP for its efforts, Gupta also lauded the successful Human Training Programme, also called Crew Resource Management, undertaken by Indian Airlines since 1997. In his welcome address, the President of FIP, Captain M R Wadia, said that total government openness and transparency is a must towards the cause of air safety. In the post-lunch lecture former Indian Air Force officer, Group Captain G S Nayar, stated that unless the Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems are not mordernised, there could be one major catastrophe every seven to ten days by the year 2010.
