2 month-long audit announced by DGCA after host of technical snags reported

NEW DELHI: DGCA, the aviation regulator, launched a 2-month special audit of airlines after an inspection earlier this month found insufficient and unqualified engineering personnel certifying the carriers' flights before departure, officials said.

Technical glitches were reported in flights of different airlines in the last 45 days, prompting the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to conduct spot checks.

The DGCA order dated July 18 said that facilities such as hangars and stores, equipment used by airline personnel, quality assurance system of airlines, aircraft grounded due to lack of spare parts and maintenance control centres of airlines are the focus of the above special audit.

The special audit will also focus on the availability of "sufficient, suitably qualified and experienced" manpower, duty time limitations, availability of current maintenance data for all types of aircraft, adequacy of aircraft turn-around time during transit and "multiple MEL releases", as per the order, which has been accessed by PTI.

"MEL (minimum equipment list) releases" means an aircraft is allowed to fly with certain inoperative equipment or instruments for a specific period of time until the repairs are done. There have been reports of increased engineering-related occurrences in scheduled airlines in recent times," the order mentioned.

The order said the special audit of all scheduled airlines is starting from July 19 to ensure that they are adhering to the "laid down standards".

DGCA officials said that the special audit will be completed in the next two months.

After conducting spot checks, the regulator disclosed its findings last week.

Spot checks found that aircraft of various airlines were being certified by insufficiently qualified engineering personnel before departure.

Before each departure, an aircraft is checked and certified by an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME).

The spot checks found that the AME teams of airlines are improperly identifying the "cause of a reported defect", the DGCA said.

They also found that there has been an "increasing trend of MEL (minimum equipment list) releases" of aircraft, it noted.

"It is also seen that airlines are resorting to frequent one-off authorisation to Category A certifying staff at transit stations which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions," it mentioned.

The engineering head of one of the Indian airlines explained that a Category A engineer is called a 'limited scope engineer', and he or she is allowed to certify and release planes for departures only when the aircraft does not have any complex defect.

Therefore, the DGCA last week issued guidelines for airlines, asking them to deploy sufficient and qualified AME personnel, and directing them to comply by July 28.

Indian carriers' planes have faced several technical malfunction incidents during the last 45 days.

Air India's Dubai-Kochi flight was diverted to Mumbai on July 21 after the pilot-in-command reported a loss in cabin pressure.

On July 21, Go First's Mumbai-Leh and Srinagar-Delhi flights faced engine snags.

A Go First flight heading from Delhi to Guwahati on July 20 was diverted to Jaipur after the A320neo aircraft's windshield cracked mid-air.

On July 17, IndiGo's Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as a precautionary measure after pilots observed a defect in one engine.

On the night of July 16, the Calicut-Dubai flight of the Air India Express was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was observed in the cabin mid-air.

On July 15, a live bird was found in the cockpit of an Air India Express Bahrain-Kochi flight.

Spice Jet is also under scrutiny.

DGCA issued a show-cause notice to SpiceJet on July 6, after it had eight technical glitches since June 19.

With inputs from PTI