New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has apparently warned Air India for breaching safety rules after three of its Airbus planes flew despite checks on emergency equipment being overdue, Reuters has reported.
The news agency has claimed that it reviewed both the warning notices and an investigation report, and they are in no way related to the aircrash in Ahmedabad on June 12 that claimed the lives of nearly 270 people. These were apparently sent days before the crash.
Spot checks carried out in May by the DGCA apparently found that three AI Airbuses were operated despite mandatory inspections being overdue on the “critical emergency equipment” of escape slides.
In one case, the watchdog found that the inspection of an Airbus A320 jet was delayed by more than a month before being carried out on May 15. The aircraft apparently flew to international destinations such as Dubai, Riyadh and Jeddah during this period.
Checks were three months later for another aircraft – an Airbus A319 – used on domestic routes. In the third case, inspection was delayed by two days.
“The above cases indicate that aircraft were operated with expired or unverified emergency equipment, which is a violation of standard airworthiness and safety requirements,” the DGCA report has said.
Air India “failed to submit timely compliance responses” to deficiencies raised by the DGCA, “further evidencing weak procedural control and oversight,” it added.
Air India, which was taken over by the Tata Group in 2022 from the government, said in statement that it was “accelerating” verification of all maintenance records, including dates of the escape slides, and would complete the process in the coming days.
In one of the cases, Air India said, the issue came to light when an engineer from AI Engineering Services “inadvertently deployed an escape slide during maintenance”.
Checks on escape slides are “a very serious issue. If they do not deploy during an emergency, there can be serious injuries or even loss of life.
he DGCA has said in its report that the certificates of airworthiness for aircraft that miss mandatory checks were “deemed suspended”.
According to Reuters, the warning notices and the report were sent by Animesh Garg, a deputy director of airworthiness in the Indian government, to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson as well as the airline’s continuing airworthiness manager, quality manager and head of planning, the documents showed.
DGCA often fines airlines for compliance lapses. Parliament was informed in February that fines had been imposed on airlines on 23 occasions in 2024. Around half of them – 12 – involved Air India and Air India Express. In one case, an airline was fined for “unauthorised entry into cockpit”. The biggest fine was US$ 127,000 on Air India for “insufficient oxygen on board” during a flight to San Francisco
