DNA is in possession of a copy of the report that points to gross violations and said UY Aviation had forced unqualified staffers to carry out a test flight when it crashed.
A plane that crashed in Ghatkopar in June last year killing five people had ineligible employees on board at the time of the mishap, according to a scathing report of the parliamentary standing committee on labour.
The committee headed by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya submitted its findings to the Lok Sabha on Friday. DNA is in possession of a copy of the report that points to gross violations and said UY Aviation had forced unqualified staffers to carry out a test flight when it crashed.
The committee said aviation regulator DGCA and the civil aviation ministry must be more serious about safety. It expressed concerns that proper justice/respect was not shown to the family members of the victims by the system and despite illegal behaviour of the aviation company the DGCA Mumbai has not registered any FIR of the accident.
The report calls the crash an eye-opener saying it occurred due to lack of transparency, and manipulation. Citing DGCA' submission, it says the company and the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) went ahead with the test flight in a bad weather (which prohibits any type of test flights) and that too without the DGCA's mandatory legal sanction.
''The flight carried two ground engineers in illegal manner [ground engineers are not supposed to fly in the test flight]. The family of deceased also stated which is confirmed by the officials that the pilot and ground engineer are pushed into the aircraft forcefully in an illegal manner,'' said the committee in its report.
Quoting various agencies, the committee said the aircraft had been grounded following an accident in February 2008 and its certificate of airworthiness was cancelled. It was repaired in a non-scientific manner and taken for test flight without DGCA clearance. It was criminal negligence that resulted in the five deaths, said the committee.
According to the committee, the labour ministry in its submission clarified that the employees, who were on board and died, were not legally appointed and were also not covered for accident death insurance. ''The aircraft was insured for Rs 7 crore in January 2017 in an illegal and non-transparent manner by a PSU insurance company. The deceased employees will not get any insurance,'' the committee said in its report.
Furthermore, the committee observed that a large number of incidents/accidents of non schedule private/chartered aircraft and helicopters are increasing day by day. At present, more than 600 such private aircrafts are used in India. However, the committee emphasised the need to improve regulatory mechanism for using such private non-schedule aircraft and helicopters.
''Increasing number of accidents resulting into death of passengers, employees, labourers and also the common citizens on the ground demands review of safety network system for them,'' the committee said in its report.
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 "Ghatkopar plane crash")
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