DGCA audit lists around 100 violations, observations related to Air India

New Delhi: Aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has come across around 100 violations and observations related to Tata Group-owned Air India's training, crew's rest and duty period norms, and airfield qualification, among others, sources said on Tuesday.

Of these, as many as seven are Level-1 violations, which are considered critical safety risks and require immediate corrective action by the air operator, they said.

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Air India, in a statement, acknowledged receipt of the findings and said it will submit its response to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) within the stipulated time frame.

The audit findings come at a time when the airline is under intense scrutiny by the regulator in the wake of the June 12 plane crash.

"All airlines undergo regular audits to test and continuously strengthen processes. Air India's annual DGCA audit took place in July, during which it was fully transparent with auditors in the spirit of such continuous improvement," Air India said in the statement.

"We acknowledge receipt of the findings and will submit our response to the regulator within the stipulated time frame, along with the details of the corrective actions taken. Air India remains fully committed to ensuring the safety of its passengers and staff," the airline said.

"There are a total of 100 violations and observations in the audit report related to training, crew's rest and duty period norms, training, insufficient crew complement and airfield qualification, among others," sources said.

The detailed audit at Air India's main base in Gurugram was carried out from July 1 to July 4 as part of the operations, flight scheduling, rostering and various other areas, according to a source.

On July 23, the DGCA issued four show cause notices to Air India for various violations related to cabin crew rest and duty norms, cabin crew training rules and operational procedures, a month after the airline made certain voluntary disclosures to the watchdog.

Prior to this, on June 21, the regulator directed Air India to remove three officials from all roles and responsibilities related to crew scheduling and rostering with immediate effect for serious violations.

On June 12, the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner began to lose thrust almost immediately after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport and ploughed into a medical college hostel, killing all but one of the 242 onboard and another 19 on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in a decade. The accident is being investigated by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIIB).

The 15-page preliminary report by AAIB released earlier this month has found that the fuel supply to both engines of Air India flight AI171 was cut off within a second of each other, causing confusion in the cockpit and the aeroplane plummeting back to ground almost immediately after taking off.

The report showed that the engines' fuel switches shifted from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' within seconds of each other after take-off. "Why did you cut off?" one of the pilots was heard asking the other in the cockpit voice recording. The other pilot responded that he did not do so.

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