Features
Welfare at what cost?
SLAF Reaction
Recently the Sri Lanka Air Force sent a response to an article this Seeya wrote in The Island. Excerpts of which are given below.
“The newspaper article in concerned has caught the attention of the Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force. As stated in the article, the Commander has not declared on behalf of the SLAF, that there is no objection for the removal of the wall and replacing it with a fence. On the contrary, he had, in fact, stated that a collapsible wall could be put in place of the permanent wall which should have a solid finish obstructing the view from outside due to security reasons.
In addition, to date there has been no incident/accident reported at the Ratmalana Airfield related to the wall along the Galle Road. Further, vehicles such as passenger coach/container, etc., travelling on the main road would be taller than the wall in question and according to the article, the main road would also have to be closed every time an aircraft is approaching or taking off from that end of the runway. International runways, with due limitations can also can be considered as hazardous to flight safety. The SLAF consider Flight Safety is a paramountly important factor as an organisation which operates different types of aircraft over the years from this airfield.
WADC Wijesinghe (Group Captain SLAF)
Today is a very sad day for ‘Air Safety’. That hazardous wall remains and the advertisements are reappearing. Perhaps they think that “dogs may bark but the Caravan moves on”, how sad! However, we have to be thankful for small mercies. The SLAF, has removed the continuous solid concrete beam strengthening and retaining concrete blocks of which the said wall is constructed. Therefore, this will certainly weaken the strength of the said wall and collapse more easily on impact, but won’t solve the problem that has been pointed out. If there is a significant overrun or an under-shoot of an aircraft of any size, there could be serious damages and even loss of life.
The war is over
There is no war now and arguably Ratmalana is the busiest civil training airports. You could drive any morning down the airport road and watch aircraft on the runway. This wall goes against the spirit of being ‘Proactive, Predictive and Preventive’ as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The SLAF Safety Record
SLAF says that for them Air Safety is Paramount. We need to compare the number of fatal accidents/ incidents that have occurred during the past 10 years in the SLAF and the Civil Aviation operations. From any point we look at it, the number of fatal accidents in the SLAF exceed that of civil operations. The latest thinking by Air Safety experts is that an organisation’s ‘Attitude’ is foremost, when it comes to causation of accidents. Then and only then comes Skill and Knowledge in that order. ‘ASK’ is the acronym used. No one denies that the SLAF pilots are skillful and knowledgeable.
The hazardous wall adds insult to injury and only goes to prove the ‘bad attitude’ of the gentlemen of the SLAF. They seem to be thumbing their noses at well thought out and proven ‘Air Safety’ principles which should be the cornerstone of any ‘high risk’ operation.
Captain A. G. Lamplugh, a British pilot from the early days of aviation once famously said “Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous”. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.”
This observation still holds good. The SLAF have grossly neglected to recognise ‘Murphy’s Law’ which says “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. Ratmalana Airport can do without a man-made wall on the landing or take-off path. These air safety principles are set in stone and nothing new. By now the SLAF should know these facts of life (and death).
Public looking into the airport
Group Captain Wijesinghe, on the Commanders behalf, further states that the said wall prevents the general public from peeping into the Airport. If he saw what happened on the 3rd and 4th of February this year where the general public (men, women and children) parked their cars down the Airport Road and peered through the barbed wire fences from strategic places at the Ratmalana Airport to watch the formation take offs and landings of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, for the fly-past. What would he now say? Will the SLAF want to wall those places up or build a wall right around the Airport perimeter?
Isn’t it a terminal inexactitude to justify an unnecessary and dangerous wall at Galle Road end by the SLAF?
Security
These days we all have access to ‘Google Earth’. If one looks at the distance of the said wall to the first SLAF hangar on the Attidiya (North side), it is at a distance of 1,266.32 Metres. In contrast,the distance from the fence at BIA on the Negombo Road to the first SLAF hangar is only 1,011.61 Metres. In other words, the SLAF Katunayake Base hangar is closer to the main road than the distance the Ratmalana wall to the SLAF hangars at Attidiya. So will the SLAF want the BIA perimeter fence be replaced by a wall? Walls are generally not built on the airport perimeters the world over. On the other hand, fences are the industrial norm Aviation
Isn’t it another terminological inexactitude to justify the presence of an unnecessary and dangerous wall?
This Seeya believes that facts have been misrepresented to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) with a host of ‘terminological inexactitudes’ to keep the wall for the purely the purpose of hoardings and earn easy and quick money for the welfare of the SLAF. Will the said ‘Advertiser’ be willing to accept collective accountability with the SLAF when a fatal accident (God forbid) takes place at the Galle Road end at Ratmalana?
Question of ownership
Group Captain Wijesinghe, SLAF also states that wall was built with the consent of the Airport and Aviation (AASL). So is the AASL the real owner and the SLAF and the MOD are just tenants? This Seeya is aware that millions of Rupees were paid to the SLAF by the original owner, Civil Aviation Authority, Sri Lanka (CAASL) for them to move from the South side to the North Side of Ratmalana Airport. So is CAASL the registered owner? After the AN 32 fatal crash at Hokandara on 12th December 2014, why did the Director of Operations SLAF and later its Commander, Air Vice Marshall Kapila Jayampathy, request by letter (Reference SLAR/ 72/1/DAO of 27th January 2015) to the Director General CAASL, to install an appropriate navigational aid at Ratmalana? Clearly he admitted to all and sundry that the SLAF were not the real owners of the Ratmalana Airport. Building that wall is an absolutely high-handed act of a local ‘Chandiya’ (strong man). Thus sadly reflecting the bad attitude of the SLAF. The ownership of the Ratmalana Airport is certainly a Grey area. Will the real owner of the Ratmalana Airport please stand up?
Acts of omission
Will AASL be held accountable by not withdrawing the permission to the SLAF to build a wall? Interestingly, this Seeya remembers that when this wall was built, the then Director General of the CAASL was in shock and not even asked and was heard to remark “it looks as if this wall was built by non-aviators” (In those days the CAASL was the owner of the Airport and AASL was regarded a ‘Service Provider’.) There is no war now and seems like ‘an act of omission’, on both AASL’s and CAASL’s part. Do both parties have cold feet because the SLAF have got the MOD involved? As late Capt George Ferdinand (who had the distinct honour of being the Manager Operations in both Air Ceylon and Air Lanka,) would say jocularly, “It is time the real owner/s put the foot down with a firm hand”
SLAF welfare at what cost?
GUWAN SEEYA