Immediately after the plane crash in Ahmedabad, many well-wishers and friends spoke in a manner of advising that you travel too much. He didn't say it directly but he meant aviation safety, I explained to him that it was an accident. In fact, air travel remains the safest medium. Analysis of the data shows that globally only one in 10 million passengers are likely to die in air travel, while the risk of dying in a road accident is much higher.
I gave him many more statistics about the safety of air travel. For example, 180,000 people died in road accidents in India last year. On an average, 20,000 people die every year in train journeys in India. Looking at these figures, air travel seems absolutely safe, but some questions keep churning my mind. After the Ahmedabad air crash, the questions have started to get even more fussy. If you look at the scale of air passenger figures, India is currently at number three in the world. The US has the highest number of passengers flying and China is second. In the financial year ending March 2025, the number of domestic air travellers reached 165.4 million.
This figure is 7.6 percent higher than in the year 2023-24. This figure is going to increase year after year because many small cities are waiting for airlines to start despite having airports. Why, then, is India still lagging behind when it comes to air travel? I am saying 'slippery' because we are at number 48. In general, we Indians can take solace in the fact that we were at number 102 in 2018 and number 48 in 2022, but my question is that when we are so high in the number of air passengers, we should be equally vigilant in terms of safety. The very old rules were changed by the Indian government in 2024. It is likely to make a big difference, but small things give rise to big apprehensions.
Let me give you an example of Nagpur Airport, a part of the ceiling of the roof suddenly collapsed one day. Fortunately, there was no major accident but some passengers did suffer injuries. It is said about the aviation sector that there is a policy of zero tolerance for everything, then how did the ceiling of the roof collapse? Somewhere there was a mess in the construction work. There are many more such incidents. The Air India plane that crashed as soon as it took off from Ahmedabad is yet to be revealed. But on the same day, during the journey from Delhi to Ahmedabad on the same flight, the video taken by a passenger was dangerous. It is seen in the video that none of the buttons are working. Passengers are upset due to the AC not running.
Was he examined after reaching Ahmedabad? If a plane crashes somewhere, it means that there has been a mistake somewhere. Many great examples of omissions in the aviation sector are recorded in history. Let me remind you of some of the plane crashes that took place in India so that you can understand the situation. On New Year's Eve in 1978, an Air India flight to Dubai plunged into the sea shortly after taking off from Mumbai. All 213 people on board the Boeing 747 were killed. The cause of the crash was attributed to technical fault and confused reaction of the pilot. In April 1993, an Indian Airlines plane collided with a truck on the runway while taking off from Aurangabad.
Overloading and pilot error were considered to be the cause of the crash. In August 2020, while landing at the Kozhikode International Airport, the plane overshot the runway and fell into a valley. The plane broke into pieces, killing 21 passengers, including 2 pilots. In 1990, an Indian Airlines plane crashed near Bangalore airport killing 92 passengers. There was also a pilot's mistake. I am a frequent flyer, I can say on the basis of my experience that air travel in our country is not as pleasant and comfortable as it is in the journey of foreign airlines. Leave aside air turbulence, sometimes there is such a rough landing that the heart of the passengers comes to the mouth. There are many things to say, but in short, many things in the aviation industry in India really need to be addressed under the zero tolerance policy.
Isn't it shameful that we don't have a single airport in the top 25? Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi is ranked 9th in the world in terms of busyness, but it is also at number 32 in the list of best airports and the final question is why ten airlines closed down in India between 2006 and 2024? There are so many things, there are so many questions, but you travel without worry, it is also the fastest and the safest.