Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad: Starting Monday, India’s civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), will conduct a thorough review of Air India’s main base in Gurugram, according to an ET report. This review was already scheduled as part of its annual surveillance programme and is not triggered by the recent crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad on June 12.
What do we know about the inspection?
The DGCA team will scrutinise a range of important areas. Inspectors will verify Air India’s records for aircraft airworthiness as well as check crew training and duty hours. The objective is to ensure that the airline is fully complying with all safety regulations. According to a senior DGCA official, the audit is part of regular checks that airlines must undergo, regardless of any incident.
This inspection comes amid heightened scrutiny of Air India’s operations. The regulator had already decided to upgrade its audit process after the Ahmedabad crash, which killed 241 people on board and over 30 on the ground. “This review is part of the annual plan,” said the official, “but naturally the crash has focused attention on safety compliance across all areas of airline operations.”
The DGCA also revealed its revamped audit framework. Traditionally, safety checks and audits in Indian aviation were carried out in separate silos. Inspectors looked at compliance for one area such as airworthiness or crew training without seeing the bigger picture. The new system adopts a more holistic model, going beyond spot checks or scheduled inspections.
Under the new plan, audits will examine three broad areas of an airline’s operations: the effectiveness of its Safety Management System, the robustness of its day-to-day practices, and overall compliance with existing regulations. “This is a paradigm shift,” the DGCA noted in a public notice. “We will look at the entire aviation ecosystem, not just one piece at a time.”
The DGCA added that its review teams will include experts from different domains including safety, engineering, training, and navigation to make the audits more thorough. These special audits will take place across airlines, airports, maintenance organizations, and pilot training schools. Serious accidents, repeated violations, or non-compliance could also trigger these checks at short notice.
Air India reduces flight frequency
Meanwhile, Air India on Sunday announced that it would scale back operations temporarily. The airline will reduce 118 weekly flights on 19 routes and fully suspend three other routes to focus on maintenance and safety compliance during this period.
With this renewed regulatory focus, the DGCA aims to ensure that safety and compliance take top priority across India’s civil aviation sector.