Mangalore, March 7: Nearly two years after Mangalore air crash, which claimed 158 lives, a Mumbai based lawyer has filed a private complaint before the JMFC II here, against Airport Authority of India, Air India and Director General of Civil Aviation.
Advocate Yeshwant Shenoy, who is the president of 812 Foundation, in his complaint said that lack of fire-fighting preparedness and emergency access roads, wrong marking on the runway, issue of License to airport, Air operator and pilot in violation of Aircraft Rules were some of the major reasons for the tragedy.
The complaint was filed in JMFC?II?after the Panambur police reportedly refused to file his complaint.
Mr Shenoy making his case before the JMFC II judge Kulkarini SR, named 15 persons including Air India (AI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the complaint.
He said as per norms emergency access roads should be provided for an aerodrome where terrain conditions permit their construction, to facilitate achieving minimum response times - which is at the maximum three minutes. In Bajpe air crash, the fire fighters had reportedly reached in 15 minutes.
Mr Shenoy quoting the writ petition filed in Karnataka High Court in 1997 pointed out that in crash of the Alliance Airlines in Lucknow, as in the case of the crash of the AB-320 airplane in Bangalore, even lesser physical impediments caused a very high response time resulting in unnecessary loss of life and property.
The complainant also brought to the attention of the judge that in 1997 one Arthur Pereira had filed writ petitions Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the Karnataka High Court regarding standards for providing the minimum area for a stop way / a clear way in the event an aircraft undershoots or over-runs the runway. AAI filed a detailed statement of objections and both the writ petitions were disposed off by the High Court directing the AAI and the Government to ''comply with all laws''. Even a Special Leave Petition filed in the Supreme Court elicited the same response.
Referring to the presentation made by Capt. Mohan Ranganathan, a member of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) to the DGCA / Ministry of Civil Aviation, Shenoy said the marking on the runway was wrong stating it is exactly at that point the pilot made the decision of taking offagain. ''The marking shows the availability of 2000 ft of runway when there was virtually no runway available.
The accused were duty bound to maintain the airport in accordance with the ICAO standards and to ensure no licenses were issued to airports that did not meet the ICAO norms. The judge will decide on admitting the complaint on Wednesday.
812 Foundation is a trust formed by Yeshwant Shenoy to help the victims.
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