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International flight safety conference begins
by Sutirtha Sanyal

    New Delhi: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today inaugurated the first ever International Flight Safety Conference (IFSCON-2006) under the auspices of Directorate of Flight Safety, Indian Air Force here. The theme of the conference, which is aimed at providing valuable platform for mutual interaction for around 50 delegates from 15 countries and around 200 delegates from 35 National Aviation Organization, is 'Aviation Safety - A Universal Language'. Addressing the inaugural session of the conference, the Defence Minister said that the conference would provide for a useful platform for mutual interaction on current trends in the flight safety and accident investigation. Mukherjee appreciated the vision of IAF in pooling the thought process, techniques and concepts from around the world in the field of accident prevention. Mukherjee went on to say that "the IAF was in a critical situation because of low fleet service abilities caused due to shortage of spares". "I have consequently evolved a fast track procurement mechanism and deputed a task force to Russia/abroad for immediate procurement of spares. I have encouraged the IAF to decommission redundant and unreliable technology," he added.

    The Defence Minister had earlier constituted an expert committee in December 2004 to find out the root causes of aircraft accidents and to prepare a comprehensive action plan to reduces the losses to a minimum. With reference to the findings of the expert committee, Mukherji said that several factors needed to be addressed through invigoration of flight safety organization by enhanced interaction at all levels. These would include evolution of a comprehensive flight safety strategy, risk management through operational risk management techniques and safety audits. Extending a hearty welcome to all the delegates, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi, who was also present on the occasion, said: "The timing of this conference could not have been better. The aviation environment of today is extremely dynamic. Technology is changing at a hitherto unimagined pace. The skies are getting more and more crowded and the environment is getting degraded. We are all faced with these challenges in our respective organization and are constantly evolving strategies to meet them".

   The main topics of discussion during the IFSCON would be managing Diverse Technology Spectrum in IAF, Risk Management, System Safety Approach, Human Factors and Human Error Aircrew, Accident Investigation, MultiCrew Cockpit Resource Management and Flight Safety Operations Quality Assurance. Australia, France, Russia, UK, US, Czech Republic, UAE, Oman and Myanmar are the participating countries at the conference, which would conclude on Wednesday. The Indian delegates include Indian Army, Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Border Security Force, DG Civil Aviation, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Indian Airlines, and Airport Authority of India. ,
-Jan 24,  2006

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