Airlines get safety deadline

The directorate general of civil aviation has asked all domestic airlines to submit a timeframe by which they will comply with safety norms. Any airline failing to comply, could face action.
This follows the DGCA’s surveillance report, which found safety lapses across all airlines.

Director General EK Bharatbhushan said, “We will watch them carefully during this time. In the event of further non-compliance, all options are open.”

Though he declined to elaborate, the DGCA could take several steps: it could ask airlines to reduce the scale of operations; it could ask them to curtail operations according to the fleet inventory available and as a last resort, even cancel their operating permits.

The audit found violations by every airline. While Kingfisher and AI Express were the worst offenders, other airlines, too, were found at fault.

According to DGCA sources, IndiGo was found to have “underreported” some safety related incidents. The airline had also removed aircraft engines much earlier than mandated. “But IndiGo people explained that they have done it on the advice of Airbus and we are satisfied,” these sources said.

On Kingfisher, these sources explained that not only has the airline violated standard safety norms on maintenance of engines spares, etc, it has also been putting out schedules for flights which are not in operation at all. The sources further said that Air India Express has several other issues. It does not have enough staff in the safety department, no deputy chief of safety and not enough instructors or examiners.