Parliament Panel to Review Aviation Safety, Air India Maintenance Issues
On June 21, DGCA sought details on the airline's planned and unplanned inspections, audit, cockpit/en route, station facility, ramp and cabin inspection, among others, from its flight operations inspectors since 2024
New Delhi: The Parliament Committee on Transport is expected to meet officials from Boeing, Air India, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Airports Authority of India when it holds its next meeting in July to discuss the issue of passenger safety, and aircraft maintenance concerns. The meeting, which comes in the backdrop of the Air India crash in Ahmedabad, is also likely to have elaborate discussion on air safety, fitness of aircraft and crew and take up concerns raised by passengers from time to time.
It is learnt that the Members of Parliament have shown concern about the Air India crash, helicopter crash in Kedarnath and the technical snags that are bothering airlines on a daily basis which is why officials from MoCA, DGCA, Air India and Boeing executives have been called for the meeting. The committee wants to understand the problems the aviation sector is facing and the multiple shortcomings which include aircraft maintenance, it is learnt.
Prior to this meeting, the committee will travel to Gangtok to review air and road connectivity to the northeastern states. It is learnt that the committee members will travel on Air India to get a first-hand assessment of the condition of the aircraft and its staff. The airline has been facing criticism over poor maintenance of its planes with even union ministers and MPs tweeting pictures of broken seats and ACs not functioning.
Meanwhile, the DGCA is learnt to have begun a detailed annual audit of Air India's operations, flight scheduling, rostering and various other areas. Compared to the previous years when a three member team used to conduct an audit, this time an eight-member team from the DGCA is doing the audit.
On June 21, DGCA sought details on the airline's planned and unplanned inspections, audit, cockpit/en route, station facility, ramp and cabin inspection, among others, from its flight operations inspectors since 2024. The communication was sent out a day after the regulator issued a show-cause notice to the airline for Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) violation and also ordered the removal of the airline's three senior officials from their respective roles for certain lapses.