Thanks for the article link. This is a serious issue and I hope more Indian flyers begin to care about it. It is funny (actually sad!) to see folks here debating at great length issues like upgrade un-availability on domestics and the poor state of airline lounges (see adjacent threads), instead of focusing on deficiencies that are much more critical. It is representative of the prevailing attitudes in the larger society. This is not to say that upgrades and lounges should not be of legitimate interest to a frequent flyer, but aren't the priorities are skewed up? I mean where is the outrage at unfit crafts and crew? Some would remember the recent case of the U.S. FAA threatening to ban Indian aircraft from servicing American destinations ('coz of poor maintenance records) and that this was avoided only after a lot of political kow-towing and last-minute desperate pleadings by the "babus". And the stories of corrupt/unqualified cockpit crew that are currently playing out in the media.. shall this too be forgotten in a wave of some new sensational "breaking news" story?
At the risk of over-generalizing, people of this country are weak in demanding accountability, transparency and integrity in the public sphere. The way things work, we only get what we demand. This is true in most other spheres of contemporary Indian society, not just civil aviation.
On a more practical note, each time I now fly on an Indian carrier, I am going to try and demand all the aircraft & crew details listed by the author. If more people start doing this, we will hopefully reach a tipping point where these airlines will begin to care more about passenger safety.
