Airprox incidents in Indian airspace fell in 2023, says DGCA

The Annual Safety Review-2023 released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today indicated that air travel has significantly improved compared to the last two years. It also informed that the safety performance assessment when compared to the past two years indicates that the number of risk-bearing airprox per million flights over Indian airspace has reduced by 25% and achieved the target. Generally, airprox refers to two aircraft being in close proximity beyond permissible limits.

The number of GPWS/EGPWS warnings per 10,000 departures has reduced by 92% and achieved the target. This reduces the risk of controlled flight into terrain. GPWS is a Ground Proximity Warning System and EGPWS is an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System.

The number of unstabilized approaches that continue to land per ten thousand approaches has shown a continuous decreasing trend with a reduction of approximately 23 % and met the target. This reduces the risk of runway excursions and abnormal runway contact.

DGCA has published the National Aviation Safety Plan (NASP) identifying the National - High-Risk Categories of Occurrences (N-HRCs) in line with the ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP). The performance of NASP in terms of safety performance indicators (SPI) and safety performance targets is assessed annually and published in the form of the Annual Safety Review (ASR).

"It presents the analysis of the aggregate safety data derived from the DGCA database and external sources such as ICAO iSTARS for the preceding year," the release said.

This data-driven approach ensures a firm embedding of the safety culture in the aviation growth trajectory and provides a robust process to identify emerging safety issues and continually refine existing procedures, the watchdog further noted.