The Hindu Business Line : Indian carriers conduct checks on Boeing 737s

Indian carriers Jet Airways, Spicejet and Air India Express have taken note of the Director-General Civil Aviation’s directive on checks to be carried out on new generation Boeing 737 aircraft.

Speaking to Business Line, the CEO of Jet Airways, Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, said, “Our checks will be completed tonight. So far everything is in order and we do not expect anything major.”

Captain P.P. Singh, Chief Operating Officer of Air India Express, the low-cost arm of Air India, said, “We have received the directive from DGCA and our engineers are working overtime to complete it within stipulated time. So far eight aircraft have been checked and eight are more to go, however, no problems have been found.”

Spicejet too is on its way to complete the checks. “We have taken this up in our standard maintenance exercise and three aircraft have been checked so far with no problems found. There are 10 more to go,” said Mr Siddhanta Sharma, CEO of Spicejet.

According to a media report last week, DGCA had issued a directive to those carriers which own or operate Boeing 737 models -600, -700, -700C, -800, -900 and -900 (extended range).

The directive was carried out by India’s aviation regulator acting upon an emergency order by the US Federal Aviation Authority which detected that loose parts in the wings carrying fuel in Boeing 737 aircraft could lead to leakage and cause fire.