The Directorate General of Civil Aviation directed Air India to remove three officials. These officials violated pilot rest duty hours. The DGCA warned of license suspension for repeated violations. A show cause notice was issued to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson. The airline will reduce flights to Europe and North America. This reduction will continue till mid-July.
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Civil Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked Air India to remove the head of its operations control centre and two other senior officials- for violations of pilot rest duty hours, according to a copy of the order reviewed by ET.
DGCA's action is not connected to last week's crash which killed 241 people on board and more than 30 on ground.
DGCA also warned that repeat of such a violation may lead to suspension of the airline’s license.
The three officials named are Choorah Singh, Divisional Vice President; Pinky Mittal, Chief Manager - DOPS, Crew Scheduling; and Payal Arora, Crew Scheduling - Planning.
According to the DGCA order dated June 20, they were involved in multiple lapses, including unauthorised and non-compliant crew pairings, violations of licensing and crew rest norms and systemic failures in oversight.
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This is the second time the same officials have been pulled by the regulator. In February, DGCA had asked Air India to take action the three after it was discovered that a first officer operated a flight without mandatory training requirement
The regulator has also sent a show cause notice to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson due to the violation and has asked for an explanation within seven days.
DGCA said that during an audit of the airline it was found that the airline had operated two flights on the Bengaluru-London route where the pilots exceeded the stipulated duty limit of 10 hours.
During the audit, the regulator also found the three officials were involved in unauthorised rostering of crew, violation of mandatory licensing norms.
"Internal disciplinary proceedings must be initiated against these officials without delay, and the outcome of such proceedings shall be reported to this office within 10 days from the date of issue of this letter," DGCA said in the order.
“The officials are also to be reassigned to non-operational roles and are barred from holding any position with direct influence on flight safety and crew compliance until further notice.”
Air India in a statement said that Chief Operations Officer Basil Kawuk will provide direct oversight to the Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC). Kawuk, who was earlier with Singapore Airlines, joined Air India last year.
“Air India is committed to ensuring that there is total adherence to safety protocols and standard practices,” the airline said. It didn’t respond to queries on show cause notice to CEO Wilson.
Regulatory scrutiny of Air India’s flight operations have increased following the crash. DGCA is also doing enhanced inspection of the Boeing 787 fleet of Air India. The checks are extensive including a one-time check" of the take-off parameters, to review the last 15 days of technical snags on these aircraft and resolve any recurring problems.
Following this, the airline said that it will reduce flights to Europe and North America by 15% till mid-July to increase contingency aircraft to cater for cancellation as checks have been delaying flights the effect of which was compounded due to the closure of the Iran airspace forcing airlines longer diversion. Night curfew in European airports further delayed the return leg as pilots also ran out of their permitted duty hours.
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