{"id":45343,"date":"2025-06-13T20:54:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T15:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=45343"},"modified":"2025-06-26T15:20:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T09:50:25","slug":"ahmedabad-air-india-plane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-06-2025\/ahmedabad-air-india-plane-crash","title":{"rendered":"Air India Plane Crash in Ahmedabad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Disaster Management<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB)<\/strong> has initiated a formal investigation into the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An <strong>Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner<\/strong> crashed into a college hostel in Ahmedabad, causing more than 200 casualties.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>two black boxes <\/strong>will help in revealing what triggered the tragic crash of the Air India plane.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This disaster could rewrite aviation safety norms, especially for India, now the <strong>world\u2019s 3rd-largest<\/strong> <strong>domestic aviation market.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>India\u2019s Aviation Growth Trajectory<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Passenger Traffic:<\/strong> India handled over <strong>152 million<\/strong> domestic passengers in FY 2023-24, growing <strong>21%<\/strong> year-on-year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cargo Market:<\/strong> India is the <strong>sixth-largest air cargo<\/strong> market globally, handling <strong>3.33 million tonnes<\/strong> of freight in 2022-23.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Airport Infrastructure: <\/strong>Over 150 operational airports, with 75 added in the last 9 years under the <strong>UDAN (Udein Desh Ke Aam Nagrik) Scheme.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Employment:<\/strong> The sector supports over <strong>4 million jobs<\/strong> directly and indirectly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB)<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Established:<\/strong> In 2012 under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.<br>&#8211; <strong>Mandate: <\/strong>Investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents to determine causes and recommend safety measures (as per Annex 13 of ICAO).<br>&#8211; <strong>Legal Backing:<\/strong> Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017.<br><strong>What is a Black Box?<\/strong><br>&#8211; A black box is a small <strong>machine that records information<\/strong> about an aircraft during its flight.&nbsp;<br>&#8211; It is a <strong>bright orange or yellow rectangular box<\/strong> crafted to withstand explosions, fire, water pressure, and high-speed crashes.&nbsp;<br>&#8211; <strong>Discovered by Australian scientist David Warren<\/strong>, it is used to discover the cause of a plane crash.<br><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"black box\" width=\"354\" height=\"335\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXe9WlFXdJ1We_z-hz3ypjRBx4erwSBAJX5RtEQYzExUqnKmhiUJkdDXvr6GPrdGBBtaRcMe3ZFeFcCJb5-w5yBD1fHcRPIwIHwB9wmdXsYbqBM1A8gPD8WK0kd8Vtx6pgjTJaTAMQ?key=pgm5Vtr39h-ST9hw99VO0w\"><br><strong>What Does A Black Box Do?<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>The black box comprises two components:<\/strong><br>1. <strong>Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR):<\/strong> Captures cockpit audio, including pilot conversations, alarms, and engine sounds.<br>&#8211; <strong>Flight Data Recorder (FDR):<\/strong> Logs key flight parameters such as, Altitude, Airspeed, Flight heading, Vertical acceleration, Pitch and roll angles etc.<br>&#8211; <strong>Location:<\/strong> They are usually placed in the tail section of the aircraft\u2014an area statistically least impacted in crashes.<br>&#8211; <strong>Crash Survival Capabilities:<\/strong><br>1. <strong>Materials: <\/strong>Titanium or stainless steel casing<br>2. <strong>Impact Resistance: <\/strong>Can survive 3,400 g of force<br>3. <strong>Fire Resistance:<\/strong> Endures 1,100\u00b0C for at least 60 minutes<br>4. <strong>Pressure Resistance: <\/strong>Tolerates deep-sea pressure up to 6,000 meters.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges in the Indian Aviation Sector<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Market Concentration:<\/strong> Duopoly Structure: IndiGo (~60%) and Tata Group airlines (~30%) control ~90% of the domestic market.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Barriers to Entry: <\/strong>High operational costs, predatory pricing, algorithmic coordination, and opaque slot allocation mechanisms hinder new entrants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Financial Instability:<\/strong> Many airlines remain chronically loss-making.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Air India posted a net loss of \u20b99,556 crore in FY22.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Safety Concerns: <\/strong>IndiGo was fined \u20b91.2 crore in 2023 for security violations.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Akasa Air and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-06-2025\/ahmedabad-air-india-plane-crash\">Air India<\/a> <\/strong>have both been penalised by DGCA for lapses in safety and engineering checks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Anti-Competitive Practices:<\/strong> <strong>Gun-jumping<\/strong> (premature mergers), <strong>collusive pricing<\/strong> (two or more airlines coordinate to fix ticket prices), and <strong>slot misuse <\/strong>(Airports allocate landing and takeoff slots to airlines) remain inadequately addressed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Institutional Weakness: <\/strong>Regulatory bodies like <strong>DGCA<\/strong> (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/25-11-2022\/draft-aircraft-security-rules-2022\"><strong>AAIB<\/strong> (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau), <\/a>and <strong>BCAS<\/strong> (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security) suffer from:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Staff shortages, lack of specialised technical personnel, and delayed decision-making.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Many are headed by non-aviation experts, creating a gap between regulation and ground realities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concluding remarks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While India\u2019s aviation sector is flying high, structural fragilities threaten its safe and sustainable growth.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Addressing financial stress, market distortion, safety issues, and regulatory inertia is imperative for India to transition from a fast-growing to a truly world-class aviation ecosystem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)<\/strong><br>&#8211; ICAO is a specialized agency of the <strong>United Nations<\/strong> that coordinates the principles and techniques of<strong> international air navigation<\/strong>, and fosters the <strong>planning and development of international air transport <\/strong>to ensure safe and orderly growth.<br>&#8211; <strong>History:<\/strong> The Convention on International Civil Aviation<strong> (Chicago Convention), <\/strong>drafted in <strong>1944.<\/strong><br>1. The convention was ratified by the required number of nations, leading to the official inauguration of ICAO on <strong>April 4, 1947.<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Member States:<\/strong> 193 (India is a member of the ICAO)<br>&#8211; <strong>Headquarters: <\/strong>Montreal, Quebec, Canada.<br>&#8211; <strong>The Air Navigation Commission (ANC)<\/strong> is the technical body within ICAO. The commission is composed of <strong>19 commissioners<\/strong>, nominated by the ICAO&#8217;s contracting states and appointed by the ICAO Council.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsonair.gov.in\/gujarat-passenger-plane-crashes-in-ahmedabad-rescue-ops-underway\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>AIR<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background has-fixed-layout\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Read this in Hindi: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=45416&amp;action=edit\">\u0905\u0939\u092e\u0926\u093e\u092c\u093e\u0926 \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u090f\u092f\u0930 \u0907\u0902\u0921\u093f\u092f\u093e \u0915\u093e \u0935\u093f\u092e\u093e\u0928 \u0926\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0918\u091f\u0928\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0924<\/a><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has initiated a formal investigation into the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>About<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a college hostel in Ahmedabad, causing more than 200 casualties.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The two black boxes will help in revealing what triggered the tragic crash of the Air India plane.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">This disaster could rewrite aviation safety norms, especially for India, now the world\u2019s 3rd-largest domestic aviation market.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-06-2025\/ahmedabad-air-india-plane-crash\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45343"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46277,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45343\/revisions\/46277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}