Air India's Flight Safety Chief Suspended By DGCA Over 'Certain Lapses'

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended Rajeev Gupta, the Air India Flight Safety Chief, for one month over certain lapses found during surveillance in July.

According to the DGCA, the aviation regulator's team carried out surveillance at the Tata Group-owned airline on July 25 and 26 and found deficiencies in the areas of internal audit, accident prevention work and availability of required technical manpower.

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What DGCA found

The surveillance found deficiencies in the organisation's accident prevention work and the availability of the requisite technical manpower as required in the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements, DGCA said in a release.

"Further, it was observed that some of the internal audit/spot checks claimed to be carried out by the airline were done perfunctory and not as per the regulatory requirements," the DGCA said in its statement.

REUTERS

Why AI Chief of Flight Safety was suspended

"The approval of the Chief of Flight Safety of Air India has been suspended for a period of one month for the lapses established," it said.

DGCA said after reviewing the action taken report submitted by the airline; it issued show-cause notices to the concerned post holders.

"Based on the review of the replies received, the airline has been directed not to assign any audits/surveillance/spot checks pertaining to compliance of DGCA requirements to the particular auditor involved in the perfunctory inspections which indicate lack of diligence," it said.

AIR INDIA

Air India's pilot training also under scanner

Last month, the DGCA suspended the ATO approval for Air India's training facilities in Mumbai and Hyderabad for ten days for certain lapses in simulator training.

In February this year, the regulator ordered the removal of Air India subsidiary AIX Connect (earlier AirAsia India) head of training from his position for a period of three months, violating some norms regarding the pilots' training.

Besides, it had imposed a penalty of Rs 20 lakh on the airline and a fine of Rs 3 lakh each on eight designated examiners.

Pee-gate incident

Earlier this year, following the infamous pee-gate incident, the DGCA had also pulled up Air India for failing to take action against the passenger involved and reporting the matter to the regulator.

The DGCA had imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakhs on Air India and also suspended the license of the pilot-in-command of the New York-Delhi flight in which a person allegedly urinated on a female co-passenger on November 26.

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