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India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has issued a set of stringent conditions on domestic carriers after a sudden increase in engineering-related occurrences and malfunctioning in airlines.
In a set of guidelines issued on Monday, the DGCA mandates aircrafts at base and transit stations to be released by only certifying staff holding licence with appropriate authorisation by their organisation.
The aviation watchdog has demanded compliance of the rule by July 28.
The DGCA in a probe found that there has been instances of “improper identification of a cause of a reported defect” and increasing trend of minimum equipment list releases. It also found that there have been non-availability of required certifying staff at short intervals for multiple scheduled arrivals/ departures.
The guidelines come in the backdrop of Indian carriers reporting increased instances of emergency landings and diversions and engine malfunctioning.
In the latest set of reports that emerged on Sunday, IndiGo’s Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as a precautionary measure after pilots observed a defect in one of the engines.
On Saturday night, the Kozhikode-Dubai flight of the Air India Express was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was noticed in the cabin mid-air.
Some days back there were reports of a live bird being found in the cockpit of Air India Express’ Bahrain-Kochi flight.
SpiceJet is already under regulatory scanner right now. The budget carrier was issued a show-cause notice by the aviation regulator following at least eight incidents of technical malfunction across several of its aircraft in a span of 18 days.
SCINDIA MEETS CEOS
Earlier in the day, the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia reportedly met the chiefs of various domestic arlines asking them to “ramp up safety oversight”. The Minister met the airline chiefs one-on-one, say sources.
On Sunday, the Minister had also met the DGCA officials and sought detailed reports on each of the techinical glitches and similar instances that had been reported across Indian carriers over the last few days (one month).
Scindia, officials said, had asked DGCA to ensure that there was no compromise on passenger safety.
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