Afghan sky remains unsafe

With the existence of the Americans and other military forces in Afghanistan for the past few years we might have experienced a minor positive change towards the society as safety is their priority, however not a hint of this has altered the aviation sector in Afghanistan.

We are able to hear the roar of airliners or catch a glimpse of the contrails from a far distance but less we know how unsafe the hands flying those airliners are. It's a fact that there are no proper flying schools or educated and licensed flying instructors in Afghanistan at the moment.

The question arises how are they flying today? The majority of pilots flying for the government based or private airlines are unqualified and have been accepted as flying commanders because they had a bond with the powerful authorities at the ministry of civil aviation and gained permission for the conversion of their counterfeit licenses on bases of bribery, which today allows them to fly commercial aircrafts. The major dilemma is their lack of English proficiency which increases the risk factor during an emergency. The Afghan airlines are known for their quality of bad maintenance, their aircraft checks and crew training and there is high risk they will encounter trouble in an unlikely event of an emergency onboard. Recently the European Union banned several airliners from flying into Europe due to safety issues and declaring them unsafe by international standards and the Afghan airlines are the one of the few included in the blacklist. These airlines have been banned from flying to European Union countries for failing to meet safety standards, according to an EU list published.

There is no doubt they hold major flying licenses but they are all on basis of simulator training. No such evidence of flying school and flight training has been recorded for the Afghan pilots even though the Ministry of Civil Aviation has been receiving financial aid and support from other countries to help them move towards the international standards.

Today private airlines are flying with no legal standards and procedures and it is for the reason that lack of qualified employees in the Ministry of Civil Aviation are taking control and approving new airlines very often. Instead they should think of safety and try to introduce proper flight training with qualified instructors to provide sufficient training that is lacking in Afghanistan and makes the skies unsafe for travelling.

By: Z.U.SSaturday