HC dismisses PIL on ageing aircraft

The petitioner, a frequent flyer, J Kapur, had contended that a large number air crashes have occurred in primarily because aircraft deployed by A-I and IA are over 20 years old and have outlived their design economic life. He said the director, airworthiness, was issuing certificates to such aircraft. Kapur said A-I has had eight air crashes while IA some 20.

However, the counsels for both airlines replied that many internatinal operators fly aging aircraft. Checks on such aircraft are more stringent than those carried out on aircraft which have not crossed design econonic life. The validity of the certificate of airworthiness issued by the director-general of airworthiness is only six months in the case of ageing aircraft while in the case of others it is a year. They also submitted that none of the air crashes in India were due to ageing aircraft. The age of aircraft is immaterial as long as the aircraft is worthy to fly and there are aircraft over 30 years of age in the world which are flying safely, they added.

The bench said that a mere fact that an aircraft has crossed its design economic life does not make it unsafe for flying, though it may adversely affect the profit-earning capacity of the operator on account of its high cost of flying in view of the heavy cost of maintenance, repairs and replacement of parts of such aircraft. “However, if such aircraft is properly maintained in accordance with the instructions of the manufacturers and the directions issued from time to time by the aviation authorities, such aircraft may be flown for many years after it has crossed its design economic life,” it observed.

The judges said there is no material on record to substantiate the allegation that the authorities have been issuing certificates of air-worthiness in a mechanical manner even in respect of aging aircraft. “On the contrary, the respondents have disclosed material to satisfy this Court that proper steps are taken to maintain the aircraft in perfect airworthy condition, and for the purposes of carrying out tests and inspections, proper infrastructure exists in this country, and the relevant rules and regulations are vigorously enforced.”

They observed that Federal Aviation Administration of the US has audited the functioning of the Director General of Civil Aviation and granted it certificate of Rating 1 which is the highest standard rating. Similarly, experts from International Civil Aviation Organisation who audited the DGCA were fully satisfied with the rules and regulations that are being followed by the DGCA in excercising regulatory control of the activities of airline operators.

The bench said that concept of design economic life is now re-defined as design service objective, meaning that an aircraft os expected to give trouble-free service for specified number of years, flight hours or flight cycles and not that it suddenly becomes unsafe for operation, if it passes the design ecomnmic life. Besides the manufacturers of aircraft have not specified any retirement life of aircraft, it added.

The petitioner was represented by Shekhar Naphade, Additional Solicitor General S B Jaisinghani for Central government, DGCA, Director – Airworthiness, I M Chagla with Zubin Kamdin for AI and R A Kapadia, S Vazifdar and Jyoti Saigal for IA.