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Showing posts with the label MPL

The Indian truth behind the ruins of Takshasila

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        The truth behind the ruins of Takshasila Takshasila (Taxila ) was a vital Buddhist centre from the fifth century B.C. to the Sixth Century A.D. Takshasila illustrates the different stages in the development of a city on the Indus. It included the ancient Neolithic Saraikala mound, the Sirkap fortification (2nd century B.C.) and the town of Sirsukh (1st century A.D.). Central Asian, Persian and Greek influence can be witnessed at Takshasila. (Centre, 2023). Ancient Takshasila was situated at the pivotal junction of South Asia and Central Asia. The common association of the Huns with Takshasila has been the destroyer of the Buddhist structures at Takshasila. The name “Huns” has been associated with atrocities committed against select groups and vandalism, especially by Attila  in Europe. However, no reliable evidence exists of the Alkhan carrying out such atrocities and destruction in the outgoing fourth century. New archaeological research has revealed that this image does not
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Air India Express accident at Calicut was facilitated by the regulator, how?

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  Air India Airbus Landing at Port Blair (Source Dr Puneet) Blaming the pilots alone for an accident is like addressing the symptom rather than the root cause. The root cause of the Calicut accident of IX1344 on 7th Aug 2020 is the poor safety culture prevalent in India and the ineffective regulatory oversight. This landing(YouTube video) can be categorized as a deliberate attempt to endanger the lives of passengers and crew. This is not the Calicut landing but a landing at another critical airport where most of the year the airport experiences tailwinds. Since the airport has a unidirectional runway ( landing from one direction only), the flight crew has no option but to land in tailwinds. The situation worsens during the monsoons when there is a tailwind and the runway is wet and braking action reduces. Action has not been taken either by the regulator or by the airline safety. Why? What is the role of the regulator? The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the regulatory
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Singapore Airlines B777 levels out at 500ft, as strong cultures overshadow procedures

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  I am a true believer that society and culture cannot be separated from work and training. However best the training may be, it is under a controlled environment and the performance indicators needed to be achieved are briefed before hand. The crew undergoing training works together to achieve their objective and they are driven by performance indicators required to be achieved to declare them competent. In the real world, the motivation, drive and targets are not briefed as well as they are in a training environment. There are a lot many distractions and personal cultures and behavioral influences are lot more active as compared to a training environment.   The First Officer of this Singapore Airlines B777 departing from Shanghai, China was a Multi Crew Pilot License holder with over 1700hrs flight experience on type. The essence of an MPL training program is multi crew coordination and threat error management. Therefore it can be safely assuming that the crew had demonstrated all th
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Multi-Crew Pilot License, India needs better preparedness to adopt the change

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  The Multi-Crew Pilot License (MPL) was adopted by ICAO in 2006 with an amendment in the ICAO Annex-1. India has still not implemented the change. India has been following the traditional prescriptive training methodology with very few changes over the year. The idiom “ Don’t fix it until it breaks ” fits well in the Indian context. There is however a need to rationalize training curriculum since it has been overloaded with additional training requirement post a major accident or an ICAO mandate. There are lobbies which have been pushing for the introduction of MPL in India in partnership with a few airlines. The airlines unknowingly are falling for the bait that they have been traditionally been doing since eternity. India has always been seen as a milking cow by the west and the sheer numbers in terms of training hours requirement seems like a lucrative business to anyone. The question here is,   is India prepared to launch and support a new training and licensing methodology? The c
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