DGCA Suspends Air India’s Flight Safety Chief For 1 Month Over 'Certain Lapses'

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended Air India’s flight safety chief Rajeev Gupta for one month for certain lapses. The aviation watchdog found, during a surveillance carried out on July 25 and 26, deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the Tata-group owned airline, in violation of the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements.

This comes on the back of the DGCA last month taking action against Air India for certain lapses in simulator training. It was also observed that some of the internal audit/spot checks claimed to be carried out by the airline were done in a perfunctory manner and not as per regulatory requirements.

“Based on the review, the airline has been directed not to assign any audits/ surveillance/ spot checks to the auditor involved in the perfunctory inspections, which indicates lack of diligence,” it said.

“We acknowledge and accept the DGCA’s finding and regret the failure of one of our audit staff to fully comply with the process and documentation requirements,” an Air India spokesperson said.

Airline Vigilant About Safety Standards

The airline is not sparing any effort to uplift the culture of safety and diligence to contemporary standards, through clarifying requirements, training and stricter consequence management, the spokesperson said, adding, “We will continue these efforts for as long as is needed to effect the necessary changes.”

In February this year, the regulator had ordered the removal of Air India subsidiary AIX Connect head of training from his position for a period of three months for violating certain norms relating to pilot training. It had also imposed a penalty of Rs20 lakh on the airline and a fine of Rs3 lakh each on eight designated examiners.