U.N. Agency Puts Indonesia Air Safety Among Worst in National Audits
Despite more than seven years of concerted international help to improve the Indonesian government’s air-safety oversight, its system still ranks among the worst in national audits conducted by a United Nations agency.
Countries that have been scored higher by the International Civil Aviation Organization on the overall effectiveness of their aviation laws, regulations and monitoring efforts include tiny players such Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Cameroon and Burkina Faso.
Regulators in Jakarta now oversee a global aviation powerhouse with domestic airlines operating nearly 400 jets—carrying more than 50 million passengers annually—but results of the country’s latest ICAO audit are more comparable with those for Guinea or Latvia, nations with limited aviation activity.
In a statement Monday, Indonesia’s Transport Ministry said “it’s not true that Indonesia is one of the world’s most hazardous in terms of aviation.” The statement also said airlines “are required to have internal quality and safety inspectors licensed by” regulators, who perform “routine and periodic audits every two years, and surveillance every month.”
In July 2007, after a spate of deadly crashes, Indonesian officials and leaders of ICAO, an arm of the U.N., signed what they described as a “groundbreaking declaration” committing Jakarta to “prompt and wide-ranging action” to enhance commercial aviation safety. Indonesia pledged to provide the necessary financial and human resources to properly regulate fast-growing airlines, with early progress slated to come within a year.
Since then, the country’s aviation sector has continued to expand dramatically, with new airlines taking wing and traffic growing at an average annual rate of roughly 15%. But ICAO and independent air-safety experts say many of the same oversight problems remain, despite improving accident rates in this decade.
The issue of Indonesia’s safety initiatives is under enhanced scrutiny after the Dec. 28 crash of AirAsia Flight 8501.
The ICAO’s audit program doesn’t rate the safety or the management of individual carriers. Instead, it is intended to gauge how well government agencies are staffed and financed to ensure compliance with global standards.
The timing, duration and focus of the agency’s audits vary based on the complexity of each nation’s aviation activities, as well as information received from that country. Over the past decade or so, more than 180 separate audits have been completed, covering 99% of international air traffic.
In May 2014, the agency found Indonesia’s progress toward those goals was significantly below the world-wide average in each of the eight categories audited.
Agency experts assessed everything from legislation to the level of pilot licensing to aircraft inspections. Other categories dealt with air-traffic control services, airports and accident investigations. According to ICAO’s website, Indonesia scored below 40% in five categories and came close to the global average only in two.
After examining Jakarta’s oversight system, the ICAO assessed its level of “effective implementation” below India, Philippines and Bangladesh, which also have wrestled with oversight difficulties and ended up in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities.
The ICAO doesn’t have any direct enforcement authority, but its assessments influence U.S. and European Union actions to restrict or ban certain foreign airlines from serving their citizens.
Responding to the May audit, Indonesia agreed to a corrective action plan. But last month, the EU said “the safety oversight system in Indonesia still needs substantial improvement.” The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it found “no objective or conclusive evidence that the implementation of the corrective action plan” by Indonesian officials was adequate.
Since 2007, the U.S. has effectively barred Indonesian carriers from increasing flights to American destinations. The EU currently has Indonesia on a “blacklist” that includes 20 other states with substandard safety records, and certain Indonesian carriers are barred from flying into Europe.
But the country’s accident rate has been trending down. Tatang Kurniadi, who heads Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, said last week that the nation’s 2014 aircraft accident rate fell to 0.82 per million flights this year, down from 2.94 per million in 2007. The rolling five-year average was about 1.2.
Over the same period, crashes and major accidents involving Western-built jets averaged around .36 per million flights, according to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association.
Prior to the AsiaAir crash, no commercial jet had suffered a fatal accident in seven years. Indonesia’s worst airline accident took place in September 1997, when a Garuda Indonesia A300 jet crashed into a hill as it approached the city of Medan, killing all 222 passengers and 12 crew.
The country’s ranking by U.S. officials, which doesn’t assess the safety of individual carriers, is unlikely to improve in response to the AirAsia disaster. “Our efforts to get an upgrade” from U.S. authorities now will be more difficult, said Hadi Mustofa Djuraid, an expert at the transportation ministry.
Corrections & Amplifications
Regulators in Jakarta oversee domestic airlines operating nearly 400 jets that carry more than 50 million passengers annually. A previous version of this article stated that the airlines carried 300 million passengers.
Wall Street Journal
Airline pilots raise questions about a possible clash between management culture and air safety.
ReplyDeletePilots are a troubled lot. Too many are hand tied and frustrated by an industry that rewards those who play the game and ignores aviators whose sense of safety and old school rules might prove an obstacle to companies with an eye only for the bottom line.
Pilots have families and kids to put through school, mortgages, and a career that demands a high level of education and an intellect which matches common sense with science. Being urged to keep their opinions to themselves when a company plane has gone down is as common as it is wrong.
Pilots are again feeling the heat after AirAsia Flight QZ8501, with all 162 people aboard the Airbus A320 presumed dead. Malaysian company AirAsia, its Indonesian subsidiary, and local authorities have been quick to blame bad weather.
However, some pilots are not so sure and say corporate culture, management practices, and costs, in particular fuel, could well have played a part in the loss of QZ8501 over the Java Sea, en-route to Singapore from Surabaya in Indonesia – and in the two aircraft lost by Malaysia Airlines last year.
In case you haven’t noticed, MH370 is still missing and, alongside MH17 and QZ8501, is a great example of how senior management in the aviation industry always seem to be at their best when distancing themselves from the tragic disasters that occurred under their stewardship.