Aircraft technical snags: DGCA crackdown finds inadequate engineering employees certifying planes
By PTI
NEW DELHI: With airways reporting a number of technical malfunction incidents, aviation regulator DGCA on Monday stated it performed spot checks and located that there’s an inadequate variety of required engineering personnel certifying planes of varied carriers earlier than their scheduled arrivals/departures in a brief interval.
Before every departure, an plane is checked and authorized by an plane upkeep engineer (AME).
The DGCA has now issued tips for airways on the deployment of AME personnel and directed them to conform by July 28.
The spot checks additionally discovered that the AME groups of airways are improperly figuring out the “cause of a reported defect”, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’s order famous.
“We will ask operators to be extra vigilant. On our half additionally, we’ll additional tighten our oversight,’’ stated the Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Kumar. There shall be extra spot checks, audits of home airline operators, and it will be certain that airways are extra vigilant, he added.
The DGCA has additionally discovered that there was an “increasing trend of MEL (minimum equipment list) releases” of plane, the order stated.
“MEL releases” means an plane is allowed to fly with sure inoperative tools or devices for a selected time period, till the repairs are executed. It can also be seen that airways are resorting to frequent one-off authorisation to Category A certifying employees at transit stations which isn’t consistent with current regulatory provisions,” the DGCA stated.
The engineering head of one of many Indian airways defined {that a} Category A engineer is named a ‘restricted scope engineer’, and she or he is allowed to certify and launch planes for departures solely when the plane doesn’t have any advanced defect.
The Category B1 engineer is one step above the Category A engineer and she or he is able to dealing with mechanical defects. Similarly, Category B2 engineering is able to dealing with defects within the digital tools of planes.
The DGCA stated: “It has been decided that all aircraft at base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding AME Category B1/B2 license with appropriate authorisation by their organisation.”
The regulator advised airways to place Category B1 and Category B2 engineers in any respect base and transit stations and be sure that required instruments and tools can be found. “Alternatively, you may opt for sending the certifying staff on flight duties,” the DGCA talked about.
The DGCA stated that its instructions have to be complied with by July 28.
An airline engineering head, talking on the situation of anonymity, stated that it is going to be very tough for airways to position Category B1 or Category B2 engineers on all transit stations. “If I operate one flight per day from Jorhat or Jharsuguda, how can I keep two Category B1 or B2 engineers — which are anyway in fewer numbers — just to certify and release that one flight,” the pinnacle defined.
Meanwhile, Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, held a high-level assembly following the air safety-related incidents. “There needs to be no compromise in terms of the protection of individuals,’’ he stated.
There have been a number of technical malfunction incidents in Indian carriers’ planes over the past month.
On Sunday, IndiGo’s Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as a precautionary measure after pilots noticed a defect in one of many engines.
On Saturday night time, the Calicut-Dubai flight of the Air India Express was diverted to Muscat after a burning scent was noticed within the cabin mid-air. The scent was coming from one of many vents within the ahead galley and the pilots, due to this fact, diverted the airplane to Muscat and landed safely.
A day earlier a fowl, which was alive, was discovered within the cockpit of the Air India Express Bahrain-Kochi flight.
Just a few days earlier, a SpiceJet flight SG11 made an emergency touchdown at Karachi airport. The Delhi to Dubai worldwide flight suffered a technical fault and made the touchdown at Pakistan’s Karachi airport on July 5. A substitute flight ferried the passengers to Dubai later within the day. More than 150 passengers have been current on board the Boeing 737 MAX plane.
Indian carriers have landed in Pakistan because the flights concerned have been travelling between Gulf and India and the one flight route between India and Gulf nations both passes by way of Pakistan or over the Arabian Sea, adjoining to Pakistan.
SpiceJet is underneath regulatory scanner proper now. On July 6, the DGCA issued a show-cause discover to SpiceJet following at the very least eight incidents of technical malfunction in its plane since June 19.
The DGCA is at the moment investigating all these incidents.
(With inputs from Express News Service and Online Desk)
NEW DELHI: With airways reporting a number of technical malfunction incidents, aviation regulator DGCA on Monday stated it performed spot checks and located that there’s an inadequate variety of required engineering personnel certifying planes of varied carriers earlier than their scheduled arrivals/departures in a brief interval.
Before every departure, an plane is checked and authorized by an plane upkeep engineer (AME).
The DGCA has now issued tips for airways on the deployment of AME personnel and directed them to conform by July 28.
The spot checks additionally discovered that the AME groups of airways are improperly figuring out the “cause of a reported defect”, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’s order famous.
“We will ask operators to be extra vigilant. On our half additionally, we’ll additional tighten our oversight,’’ stated the Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Kumar. There shall be extra spot checks, audits of home airline operators, and it will be certain that airways are extra vigilant, he added.
The DGCA has additionally discovered that there was an “increasing trend of MEL (minimum equipment list) releases” of plane, the order stated.
“MEL releases” means an plane is allowed to fly with sure inoperative tools or devices for a selected time period, till the repairs are executed. It can also be seen that airways are resorting to frequent one-off authorisation to Category A certifying employees at transit stations which isn’t consistent with current regulatory provisions,” the DGCA stated.
The engineering head of one of many Indian airways defined {that a} Category A engineer is named a ‘restricted scope engineer’, and she or he is allowed to certify and launch planes for departures solely when the plane doesn’t have any advanced defect.
The Category B1 engineer is one step above the Category A engineer and she or he is able to dealing with mechanical defects. Similarly, Category B2 engineering is able to dealing with defects within the digital tools of planes.
The DGCA stated: “It has been decided that all aircraft at base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding AME Category B1/B2 license with appropriate authorisation by their organisation.”
The regulator advised airways to place Category B1 and Category B2 engineers in any respect base and transit stations and be sure that required instruments and tools can be found. “Alternatively, you may opt for sending the certifying staff on flight duties,” the DGCA talked about.
The DGCA stated that its instructions have to be complied with by July 28.
An airline engineering head, talking on the situation of anonymity, stated that it is going to be very tough for airways to position Category B1 or Category B2 engineers on all transit stations. “If I operate one flight per day from Jorhat or Jharsuguda, how can I keep two Category B1 or B2 engineers — which are anyway in fewer numbers — just to certify and release that one flight,” the pinnacle defined.
Meanwhile, Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, held a high-level assembly following the air safety-related incidents. “There needs to be no compromise in terms of the protection of individuals,’’ he stated.
There have been a number of technical malfunction incidents in Indian carriers’ planes over the past month.
On Sunday, IndiGo’s Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as a precautionary measure after pilots noticed a defect in one of many engines.
On Saturday night time, the Calicut-Dubai flight of the Air India Express was diverted to Muscat after a burning scent was noticed within the cabin mid-air. The scent was coming from one of many vents within the ahead galley and the pilots, due to this fact, diverted the airplane to Muscat and landed safely.
A day earlier a fowl, which was alive, was discovered within the cockpit of the Air India Express Bahrain-Kochi flight.
Just a few days earlier, a SpiceJet flight SG11 made an emergency touchdown at Karachi airport. The Delhi to Dubai worldwide flight suffered a technical fault and made the touchdown at Pakistan’s Karachi airport on July 5. A substitute flight ferried the passengers to Dubai later within the day. More than 150 passengers have been current on board the Boeing 737 MAX plane.
Indian carriers have landed in Pakistan because the flights concerned have been travelling between Gulf and India and the one flight route between India and Gulf nations both passes by way of Pakistan or over the Arabian Sea, adjoining to Pakistan.
SpiceJet is underneath regulatory scanner proper now. On July 6, the DGCA issued a show-cause discover to SpiceJet following at the very least eight incidents of technical malfunction in its plane since June 19.
The DGCA is at the moment investigating all these incidents.
(With inputs from Express News Service and Online Desk)
