Show cause notices issued to IndiGo executives over safety lapses
What's the story
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued show cause notices to four senior executives of leading airline, IndiGo, over safety lapses on Friday.
The notices were issued after several safety lapses and violations were found by a special audit team of the civil aviation watchdog, sources said.
The audit was reportedly carried out at the airline's Gurugram office on July 8-9.
Here's more.
Details
DGCA carried out a surprise audit at IndiGo's office
The DGCA's special audit team found the safety lapses and violations during a surprise audit, reported CNBC-TV18.
"Captain Sanjiv Bhalla, Head of Training; Captain Hemant Kumar, Chief of Flight Safety; Captain Ashim Mitra, Senior Vice President - Operations; Captain Rakesh Srivastava, QA (Quality Assurance) and Ops Safety - these four executives of IndiGo have been issued show cause notices today," a source told PTI.
The audit
IndiGo officials asked to respond within 15 days
The DGCA has asked the IndiGo officials to explain why action shouldn't be taken against them, said sources. They have to submit their reply within 15 days.
The audit was conducted in the areas of occurrence reporting, monitoring and analysis of FOQA (flight operation quality assurance), safety management system implementation, aircrew training, flight operations, and airworthiness, reported CNBC-TV18 citing sources.
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Corrective action recommended is inconsistent: DGCA's notice to Bhalla
DGCA's notice to Bhalla said, "The corrective action recommended is inconsistent and not commensurate with the severity of the FOQA events." The notice added, "The corrective training records post-failure (unsatisfactory reports) were not maintained in individuals training folder."
Notices
DGCA's notices to Srivastava and Mitra
The notice to Srivastava said, "There is a substantial delay in counseling/corrective training of the crew involved in FOQA events. There was no analysis pertaining to the crew involved in repeated exceedances in the last quarter."
"Guidelines have not been established for deciding the quantum and type of corrective action required...in case of a FOQA event," said notices to Srivastava and Mitra as well.
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Under review by the company: IndiGo on DGCA's notices
Meanwhile, in its notice to IndiGo's Flight Safety Chief Kumar, DGCA said, "There is a lack of supervision on the corrective training and related documentation." IndiGo's spokesperson has confirmed that its senior officials received show cause notices, adding, "This is under review by the company."