Winging it

establishing a causal chain and fixing responsibility is not an easy task,given that everyone in the sector has their own axe to grind and liabilities to duck,from manufacturers to airlines and airports. The Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council,set up a week after the Mangalore crash,seeks to draw in experts across four crucial fields: flight operations,airworthiness,aerodromes and air navigation services,and aircraft engineering. In its maiden meeting,it also mulled the idea of an impartial arbiter.

Air accidents will be the sole mandate of a separate safety board,freeing the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to concentrate on its regulatory duties. Conceived along the lines of the US National Transportation Safety Board,which was itself formed in similar circumstances in 1967,and hived off from the US Civil Aeronautics Board,which was in charge of regulation. The logic is that those who write and enforce the rules are not incentivised to question the working of those rules,in case of an accident. As India inaugurates its air safety board,it must make sure that it remains clear of industry insiders who might have stakes in the outcome of investigations.