DGCA Suspends Air India's Chief Of Flight Safety For A Month

In a strong move towards passenger and flight safety, on Thursday (September 21) the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended Air India's chief of flight safety, Rajeev Gupta for a month after a surveillance carried out earlier in July this year revealed several lapses. As per Rajeev Gupta's public profile, he has worked with Air India for over 35 years now and has held various posts "in training, operations, safety, administration, regulatory work, audits, IOSA."

The DGCA statement reads, "The DGCA surveillance (conducted on July 25 and 26) found deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the organization and the availability of the requisite technical manpower as required in the approved flight safety manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements," It further said, "Further, it was 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 the regulatory requirements,"

Reportedly, Air India was asked to provide an action report after the surveillance concluded. Show cause notices to the "concerned post holders" were issued after the airline submitted their report.

The DGCA said, "Based on the review of the replies received, the airline has been directed not to assign any audits/surveillance/spot checks....to the particular auditor involved in the perfunctory inspections, which indicates lack of diligence. Further, the approval of the Chief of Flight Safety of Air India has been suspended for one month for the lapses established,"

As per a report in the Business Standard, there were two major safety violations at Air India in the last two months. Surveillance conducted by a two-member team at Air India's head office in Gurugram on July 25-26 revealed that the airline allegedly fabricated reports in 13 areas where they were supposed to conduct internal safety audits. This includes cargo, ramp, and cabin surveillance.

In August, DGCA suspended the airline's approved training organization (ATO) license. The regulator reportedly identified lapses during a spot check it conducted. As a result, operations for the Boeing simulator in Mumbai and the Airbus simulator in Hyderabad were both halted.

The DGCA conditionally reactivated Air India's ATO license on 7th September for 30 days once the airline reportedly rectified the on-the-spot deficiencies. Furthermore, Air India has been instructed to conduct an internal audit of its simulators in 30 days and submit a report.

Air India has been facing hiccups after the Tata Group took control of the airline in January 2022.

Reportedly, the airline's net loss increased by 19.16% to Rs. 11, 387.96 crores in the year 2022-23.