The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is putting Boeing 737 fleets of Indian carriers on “enhanced surveillance” after a China Eastern Airlines aircraft of the same make crashed on Monday killing 132 people on board.
According to Arun Kumar, DG, DGCA, teams are also being deployed “to monitor flight procedures, air worthiness and operations” of the Boeing fleet operational in the country. Three Indian carriers, namely, SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express, use Boeing 737 aircrafts as a part of their fleet. Flight safety is serious business and we are closely studying the situation. In the interim, we are focusing on enhanced surveillance of our 737 fleet,” he said.
A Boeing 737-800 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, which was on its way from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in Wuzhou, killing 123 passengers and nine crew members. There were no foreigners among the 132 people on board the airlines, it was being reported.
Boeing 737 Max aircraft is an advanced version of Boeing 737-800 and both belong to the 737 series. The aircraft’s commercial operations was lifted after 27 months in August last year.