The government has directed Air India to end the “culture of backseat driving” when it comes to key departments directly linked to flight safety. The Aviation Ministry further ordered Tata Sons and Air India chairman N Chandrasekaran to let people holding posts in these core departments make final decisions, rather than serving as heads who take the blame when things go wrong, according to a report by The Times of India.
Leadership dichotomy at Air India
These concerns were raised in a high-level meeting by the Union Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, secretary Samir Kumar Sinha and DGCA chief Faiz Ahmed Kidwai with Chandrasekaran on what can be done to improve the safety of the flights operated by the airline, the outlet further reported, adding that the Air India chairman agreed to resolve the concerns raised in the meeting.
“Some departments, like safety, training, maintenance, engineering and ‘integrated operation control centre’ (IOCC), are key to ensuring overall operations take place safely,” TOI quoted people who were aware of the minutes of the meeting as saying.
The publication further reported, “There were observations about some of these departments having a dichotomy in terms of someone being the post holder but someone else calling the shots. This needs to be resolved, and the government is hopeful the same will happen.”
After the June 12 AI 171 crash, which claimed the lives of all but one passenger, there were several minor incidents with the flights operated by Air India. Since then, the Aviation Ministry has been holding high-level meetings with Air India and noted that the officials holding the top posts in Air India were blamed in regulatory proceedings, even though they may not have been truly responsible for the decisions or actions leading to the incidents, the national daily reported.
The report further mentioned that those who exercised real control were not brought in front of the regulators and that the officials are aware of this.
“Unko kya bolein ham (What can we say to them),” TOI quoted some officials as saying.
DGCA issues four show cause notices to AI
This comes after DGCA issued four show cause notices to Air India and directed the airline to reply within 15 days. The notices cited not one or two but a total of 29 violations, including rest norms, training protocols, among others.
In one of the cases, three pilots flew the planes beyond the mandated weekly duty hours. In another, the airline operated a few flights to North America that did not meet the minimum strength of cabin crew. Yet another notice was for training-related violations. A 114-day period is required between simulator training and actual flying; however, the airline released the pilots before completing the required sessions.
Earlier, the DGCA ordered Air India to de-roster three officials who were in charge of crew scheduling and rostering over “serious and repeated lapses”. The agency named three officials: Choorah Singh, Divisional Vice President; Pinky Mittal, Chief Manager-DOPS, Crew Scheduling; and Payal Arora, Crew Scheduling and Planning.
“Repeated and serious violations were voluntarily disclosed by Air India concerning flight crew being scheduled and operated despite lapses in licensing, rest, and recency requirements. These violations were discovered during the post-transition review from ARMS to the CAE Flight and Crew Management System,” a part of the DGCA order read.
