Nine show cause notices issued to Air India in last 6 months in connection with safety violations

A total of nine show cause notices were issued to Air India in connection with five identified safety violations in the last six months and enforcement action has been completed with respect to one violation, the civil aviation ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Last month, Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft enroute to London Gatwick from Ahmedabad crashed soon after take off, killing 260 people. Following the fatal accident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered additional checks of the airline's Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft. As many as 81 people were injured in the accident. "Out of total 33 aircraft, 31 operational aircraft have been inspected wherein minor findings were observed in 8 aircraft. These aircraft have been released for operation post rectification. The remaining 2 aircraft are under scheduled maintenance," Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said in a written reply. He was responding to a question from BJP member Ashokrao Shankarrao Chavan. Meanwhile, in a separate written reply, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said that during the last six months, no adverse trend was reported in reliability reports of Air India in respect of crashed aircraft.

However, he said that during the last six months, a total of nine show cause notices have been issued to Air India in connection with five identified safety violations. "Enforcement action has been completed in respect of one violation," Mohol said in response to queries from CPI(M) member John Brittas. Specific details were not disclosed.

Mohol, in another written reply, said that every aspect is being looked into for determining the probable causes/contributory factors leading to the accident. His answer was to DMK leader Kanimozhi NVN Somu's queries, including whether any sabotage by any person or any agency has come to the light. In another written reply to RJD member Manoj Kumar Jha, Naidu said DGCA has a structured surveillance and audit framework in place. These include planned and unplanned surveillance of organisation /aircraft such as regular and periodic audits, spot checks, night surveillance and ramp inspections across all operators and maintenance organisations. DGCA has done 254 enforcement actions this year till April while there were 673 such actions in 2024. There were 542 enforcement actions in 2023, the minister said. The enforcement action may include warning, suspension, cancellation and imposition of financial penalty. This year, the regulator has planned a total of 56 regulatory audits.