New Delhi: The Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended Air India’s Chief of Flight Safety for a month after an inspection found lapses in the carrier’s accident prevention protocol. A surveillance was carried out on July 25-26 on “internal audit, Accident prevention work and availability of required technical manpower” in Air India, which boasts of a fleet size of 121 aircraft.
“The DGCA surveillance found deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the organization and the availability of the requisite technical man power as required in the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements,” the civil aviation regulators said in a statement, adding, “it was observed that some of the internal audit/spot checks claimed to be carried out by the airline were done in a perfunctory manner and not as per the regulatory requirements.”
After reviewing the airline’s action taken report, the DGCA issued showcause notices to the post holders concerned. 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 indicates lack of diligence, the civil aviation regulator said, adding that “the approval of Chief of Flight Safety of M/s Air India has been suspended for a period of one month for the lapses established,” it added.
