DGCA seeks bar on Oslo company

Aviation regulator DGCA is writing to the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to remove a Norway-based company from their list of certified companies that conduct maintenance for trunnion pins for Boeing 737 aircraft operated by various airlines. These pins are used in aircraft landing gear and balance the aircraft load on to the fuselage. Sources said the DGCA discovered that two incidents in the past one year in India pointed to the fact that maintenance of the trunnion pins at the company plant located in the Norwegian capital Oslo had not been done properly. Both incidents pertained to flights of the same private domestic scheduled airline that operates Boeing 737s. In India, three airlines operate this aircraft.

The DGCA is also writing to US aircraft manufacturer Boeing to ask airlines operating this aircraft whether they send the trunnion pins to the concerned Oslo-based company for maintenance. The DGCA found that in case of both flights, the trunnion pins had broken and after a probe it was found that it was due to the uncontrolled heat treatment of the pins that were earlier sent to the Oslo-based company during maintenance by the private airline.