A fancy fine of ₹1.10 crore has been imposed on Air India for safety violations amid a series of incidents of flight irregularities. The safety violations occurred on specific long-range terrain critical routes, the DGCA said.
Recently, IndiGo was also fined ₹1.20 crore as the passengers of one of its flights came out on the tarmac and started eating food. Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia strongly reacted to the incident and said it was unacceptable.
A former Air India pilot who served as a B777 commander complained about the practice to the civil aviation ministry and the DGCA on October 29 last year. The DGCA said that a comprehensive investigation by them, prima facie found non-compliance by the airline.
“Since the investigation prima facie found non-compliance by the airline, a Show Cause Notice was issued to the Accountable Manager of Air India Limited. The response to the Show Cause Notice was duly examined with respect to the laid down stipulations under the relevant statutory provisions and the performance limits stipulated in critical documentations laid down by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM),” a statement issued by the DGCA read.
Air India issued a statement in which it said: “We disagree with the order issued by the DGCA. The issues raised were thoroughly examined by Air India along with external experts concluding that there was no compromise on safety, whatsoever. We are studying the order in detail and will review the options available to us including our right to appeal as well as taking it up with the regulator.”
Due to the fog, several flights were either delayed or cancelled creating chaos at some airports. Commenting on the chaos, Scindia earlier said, “There are the vagaries of nature over which regrettably we don’t have control. Those vagaries of nature happen all around the world. We have a couple of very bad fog days in Delhi. As you all are know, there are some base stations in any civil aviation ecosystem. When due to weather or any other reason, the base station gets affected, it produces a chain of unfortunate delays and cancellations across the avaition market.”
Safety is the top priority of the ministry, Scindia said.
