Why SE Asia is air disaster-prone

Dec 31 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Why SE Asia is air disaster-prone

Joshua Kurlantzick





In the past year, Malaysia’s aviation industry has suffered a number of tragedies. Although the odds of any person boarding a flight dying in a plane crash are about one in 11 million, three Malaysiabased aircraft have apparently gone down, with no survivors.

To some extent, the three Malaysian air disasters are just brutal bad luck. Still, they point to several disturbing trends that raise the question of whether flying in peninsular Southeast Asia is complete ly safe. The air market in the region has embraced low-cost carriers, leading to a proliferation of flights throughout Southeast Asia, stretching air traffic controllers, and possibly allowing airlines to expand too rapidly . Indonesian carriers, air traffic controllers, and Indonesian airspace have be come notorious for weak safety regulations.

But while air traffic has grown in the region, and while AirAsia had a mostly solid safety record, the increase in low-cost flights may have resulted in planes being operated by men and women with less experience. The pilot on the AirAsia flight had about 6,000 hours of flight experience on the Airbus plane he was flying, but it is unclear whether he had experience flying at 34,000 feet or higher, where he was trying to take the plane to avoid bad weather. BLOOMBERG

In Philippines, plane overshoots runway

An AirAsia Zest plane carrying 159 people overshot the runway and got stuck in a muddy field on Tuesday at an international airport in central Philippines after landing from Manila. No injuries were reported. AP

Flight forced to turn back in Bangkok

An AirAsia Flight FD3254 bound for northeast Thailand was forced to turn back to the capital Bangkok soon after take off on Tuesday after pilots detected an “irregularity“ in the luggage compartment. PTI