Alright, let’s concede that the offending Air Sahara aircraft had no business skittering off the runway and sinking into a soft patch of ground adjoining the main runway of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on a busy Sunday night. How that happened will no doubt be the focus of an inquiry. What should concern us here is why this mishap should have led to the near crippling of operations in India’s — dare we say it? — premier airport, for over 60 hours.An airport anywhere in the world is tested, not when things go right, but when things go wrong. The fact is that when that Air Sahara aircraft did its spectacular belly flop, it led to total chaos. It was discovered that the equipment needed to haul the aircraft away from the runway was unavailable. It took many more hours to locate the authority that did posses the equipment—Air India in this case—and more precious time to get the necessary clearances to access it. It is the old problem of a pitiable lack of co-ordination between numerous authorities, each a fiefdom unto itself.But can we really expect better when those who run the airport and its operations are the very ones in charge of ensuring that its operations run efficiently? Since airports are owned and operated by the government, no one really can be held accountable or be forced to take the rap. Airports in India do not even have the benefit of a basic procedure like airport certification. Things carry on in time-honoured chalta hai style. So what if an aircraft lands up where it shouldn’t? So what if schedules are thrown haywire? So what if there are aircraft in the sky awaiting clearance to land or flights delayed, postponed or cancelled? So what if passengers are forced to spend sleepless nights sitting on suitcases? Here’s another argument for why airport privatisation should be put on the front-burner: those 60 hours which took Mumbai airport back to the Jurassic age.
