Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Amid growing concerns over safety standards in the country's aviation industry, the government will tighten regulations on aircraft maintenance and flight crew competence.
The ministry's air transportation director general, Suprasetyo, announced a series of measures to be carried out on the recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) following the release on Tuesday of the results of its investigation into the December 2014 crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501.
"We have established a special team to ensure all safety measures and the KNKT's recommendations on AirAsia Indonesia are being followed in accordance with civil aviation safety regulations and other existing regulations," said Suprasetyo.
It will also be mandatory for flight crews to practice flight simulations for emergency recovery of an aircraft every six months, an increase from the previously recommended 12-month timeframe, according to him.
The KNKT recommended AirAsia Indonesia train its pilots flying Airbus aircraft how to cope with a loss of control, as its investigation pointed to weaknesses in pilot training in dealing with such an eventuality. The KNKT said the cockpit voice recorder revealed confusing instructions from the captain to the co-pilot who was manning the controls at the time.
The AirAsia pilots had not been trained for that scenario because the manual provided by the plane's manufacturer said the aircraft, an Airbus 320, was designed to prevent it from getting out of control and therefore recovery training was unnecessary, according to the KNKT.
However, the government claimed that crisis recovery training had been mandatory for a long time before the crash. "Emergency recovery training has been conducted, but it was once every 12 months in the past. Now we're changing it to once every six months," said Suprasetyo.
Likewise, AirAsia Indonesia said that it had integrated emergency recovery training into the Airbus A320 recurrent pilot training syllabus since 2013, even though it was not mandated by Airbus.
"We also include additional simulator training sessions in our initial type rating, which will cover more complex exercises," AirAsia Indonesia told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The ministry's airworthiness and operations director, Mohammad Alwi, said that even though the manual provided by Airbus said that emergency recovery training was unnecessary, the government had the authority to require all Airbus pilots to be trained in how to restore control of an Airbus aircraft during emergency conditions.
"Airplanes with the 'PK' registration code are Indonesian airplanes, which fall under the authority of Indonesia. We have the authority [to force emergency recovery training for all Airbus pilots]. But if the registration code is not 'PK', then we don't have that authority," he said.
Alwi added that he had met with representatives from the French government to discuss the matter.
"We are coordinating. As a matter of fact, a French government official had just met me. We can't conclude whether these [Airbus aircraft] are very bad or very good. There needs to be evaluation because producing an aircraft needs certification, starting from drawing, calculating, making the components, building the plane and testing it," he said.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/12/04/govt-tightens-regulations-aviation-safety.html