In a month that was dominated by the mystery of the missing Malaysian jetliner, it's easy not to bother with Mumbai's skies. Only, in the first three months of 2014, there have been no less than 13 incidents including at least six near-misses - one more than the number for last year.
Worse, a senior official who is part of the Air Incident Team (AIT) that probes such incidents and had complained to the Ministry of Civil Aviation of AIT co-members compromising investigations, has been kept out of the loop ever since she wrote the letter this time last year. On May 14, 2013, Mirror had reported how senior aviation safety official Mangala Narasimhan had accused her seniors of stalling a probe into an incident of faulty landing by a pilot. In the year since she brought it up with the ministry, Mirrorhas learnt that Narasimhan is neither informed of nor involved in any AIT probe.

This, despite the fact that Narasimhan is still a member of the four-member AIT, constituted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Airports Authority of India (AAI). "If a team is constituted to investigate cases of near-misses in the air, all members should be informed about the incidents and accidents that are taking place. It is equally important to involve all members in the investigation unless amember skips the meeting due to personal reasons," DGCA sources told Mumbai Mirror.
Manish Kumar Chopra, Director (aviation safety), DGCA reiterated that an appointed member should be made part of the investigation to ensure a fair probe. This issue was brought up with a seven-member AAI team from Delhi that visited Mumbai on March 21 to conduct an internal audit, AAI sources said.
This whole episode unfolded after the April 12, 2013 incident in which an Air India pilot landed a flight from Abu Dabhi at Mumbai Airport without clearance from the Air Traffic Control (ATC). When two air traffic controllers were suspended for this, Narasimhan complained to the ministry, accusing AIT members of shifting the blame on air traffic controllers to let the pilot in question off the hook.
"Senior officials, who understand the seriousness of such matters, made sure this is not repeated in future," sources added. They also pointed out that proper implementation of the Safety Management System (SMS), which DGCA has been insisting upon, has not been done since ages.
An aviation ministry source called for DGCA to order a special audit of the functioning of Mumbai Airport as well as implementation of the SMS. Among other issues discussed at the March 21 meeting included lack of waterproof huts for important operational devices on ground, and outdated fire safety standards at the old ATC building.
N G Chikkathimmiah, executive director (Aviation Safety), AAI who had headed the Delhi team that visited Mumbai on March 21 declined to comment. Despite repeated attempts, Narasimhan couldn't be reached for her comment.