The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on June 20 issued an order to three senior officials in Air India, and instructed the airline to remove the officials from all roles and responsibilities related to crew scheduling and rostering. More trouble for the airline arises as the repeated and serious violations were voluntarily disclosed by the airline concerning flight crew being scheduled and operated despite lapses in licensing, rest and recency requirements. The three officials who are addressed in the order include the divisional vice president.
According to the DGCA’s regulations, pilots who are operating a cockpit together must qualify specific criteria to be paired together, such as the total number of flying hours meeting the minimum set by the DGCA. And the crew has to be scheduled following the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms, which are set to provide the crew proper rest before their next flight.
The DGCA has also given directions to the airline to have internal disciplinary proceedings against the officials without delay, and report back to the DGCA with the outcome within 10 days from the date of issue of the letter. The DGCA warned, “Any future violations of crew scheduling norms, licensing, or flight time limitations detected in any post-audit or inspection, will attract strict enforcement action, including but not limited to penalties, licence suspension, or withdrawal of operator permission as applicable.”
The airline according to DGCA has repeatedly violated these norms along with the licensing and recency norms, prompting the authority to send a Show Cause notice to the Accountable Manager of Air India who had operated two flights from Bengaluru to London (AI133) on May 16 and 17 this year, which had both exceeded the stipulated flight time limit of 10 hours and neglecting the FDTL norms.
The notice addressing the Accountable Manager states, “The Accountable Manager of Air India has failed to ensure adherence to the provisions and compliance requirements,” and adds that the Additional Manager has to show cause within seven days of receiving the notice on why “appropriate enforcement action should not be initiated against you (Manager) under the applicable provision of Aircraft Rules and Civil Aviation Requirements for the aforementioned violations.”
The airline has also issued a statement saying, “We acknowledge the regulator’s directive and have implemented the order. In the interim, the company’s Chief Operations Officer will provide direct oversight to the Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC).”
According to the DGCA, officials have been involved in the following lapses
>> Unauthorised and non-compliant crew pairing
>> Violation of mandatory licensing and recency norms
>> Systematic failures in scheduling protocol and oversight
