New Delhi: Delay in reporting of the incidents and taking corrective action, ineffective supervision and non-compliance of procedures are some of the findings which have emerged during the annual audit of airlines by the aviation authorities.
Annual Safety Audit is carried out to assess the compliance of 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 to mitigate 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 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 safety management system in the organisation which ensure 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 last five years include: In 2019 during 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holders, DGCA approval for post holders of Chief of Flight Safety, Director Flight Training and Head of Operations were withdrawn.
In 2019 during the audit of Indigo, post holder Director, maintenance control centre was removed and enforcement action was taken against the involved Aircraft Maintenance Engineers and Pilots.
In 2020 during audit of Air Asia certain non-compliance and systematic deficiencies were observed regarding duties and responsibilities of post holders, Chief of Flight Safety and Head of Operations were suspended for a period of three months.
In 2021 during audit of Star Air certain non-compliance to regulations was observed and a financial penalty of Rs 2.5 lakh was imposed.
