New Delhi, Aug 2 (UNI) Delay in reporting the incidents and taking corrective action, ineffective supervision, and non-compliance with procedures are some of the findings which have emerged during the annual audit of airlines by the aviation authorities.
An annual Safety Audit is carried out to assess compliance with national regulations, conditions of approval, certified licenses, and approved procedures of the airlines.
As per the civil aviation ministry, the findings made during the safety audits are communicated to the concerned airline for taking necessary corrective actions and mitigating the risk.
Deficiencies that were identified and communicated to the airline operators for taking corrective measures during the last five years, included delay in taking corrective action in case of the outcome of the Flight Operation Quality Assurance (FOQA), delay in reporting of the incidents by the airlines, few of the procedures in practice were not in compliance with manufacturer’s recommended procedures and less effective supervisory control to check the amendments of documents as per latest applicable regulations and circulars.
As per a written reply by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, it also included ineffective supervision and internal auditing of operation and maintenance activities and all invoked Minimum Equipment List (MEL) items not verified during internal audits.
The audit also disclosed that the team composition for carrying out the internal audit is not as per the approved procedure and implementation of the safety management system in the organization which ensures hazard identification, risk assessment and mitigation, documentation, and safety promotion requires improvement.
Details of some of the actions taken by DGCA based on the safety audit findings during the last five years include:
- In 2019 during an audit of Spice Jet, certain non-compliance and systematic deficiencies were observed regarding duties and responsibilities of post holders, DGCA approval for post holders of Chief of Flight Safety, Director Flight Training, and Head of Operations was withdrawn.
- In 2019 during the audit of Indigo, the post holder Director, the maintenance control center was removed and enforcement action was taken against the involved Aircraft Maintenance Engineers and Pilots.
- In 2020 during an audit of Air Asia, certain non-compliance and systematic deficiencies were observed regarding the duties and responsibilities of post holders, Chief of Flight Safety and Head of Operations were suspended for a period of three months.
