Safety audits of Air India Express, SpiceJet, AirAsia, IndiGo and GoAir conducted by Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation has found the implementation of their safety management system “to be deficient”. The government informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, July 17.
According to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, the audits further found that while untrained staff were manning check-in counters, the flight crew rostering software was not upgraded.
In a written response to a question in the upper house, Puri said that the “other staff” at check-in counters lacked adequate knowledge in handling “dangerous goods”, although they are trained in Dangerous Good Regulations.
The regulator found that in a serious lapse, there was a delay in carrying out the corrective actions for the “FOQA exceedances”. The process of obtaining and analyzing all kinds of data from flights in an attempt to improve the efficiency and safety of flight operations is called Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA). When the limit of a safety parameter is exceeded, it is called an “exceedance” or “event”.
As per the Annual Surveillance Plan, safety audits of scheduled and non-scheduled airlines are regularly conducted by the DGCA.
Puri said that during the audits, it was found that the “quantum of Digital Flight Data Recorder analysed under FOQA was not as per the Indian safety regulators requirement”.
The minister claimed that the airlines have been directed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to take corrective action regarding the deficiencies that were found during the audit.
In a separate incident, DGCA issued a show-cause notice to IndiGo’s chief operating officer and engineering head over issues with the Pratt & Whitney engines.
IndiGo and GoAir, which have Pratt & Whitney-powered Airbus A320 neo planes, have been facing issues with these engines ever since their induction three years ago.
