In the wake of rise in instances of technical malfunction in flights, the government said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is conducting safety audits of all airlines on a regular basis and based on those findings, the regulator is taking strict enforcement action where it finds any serious violations.
In a written reply to a question on ‘increasing instances of safety issues on flights’ in the Rajya Sabha, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said “occurrences involving air safety have been reported to the DGCA by scheduled airlines during April-June 2022. All occurrences are mandatorily reported to DGCA which are then analyzed and the severity of the occurrence is determined. Based on the severity, these occurrences are classified and investigated and safety recommendations emanating from the investigation reports acted upon by the concerned stakeholders.”
The safety audit of all the airlines is regularly undertaken by the DGCA and the audit findings are communicated to the operators for resolution, he added.
“The deficiencies brought out by the audits have been addressed by the concerned stakeholders and strict enforcement action has been taken by DGCA for serious violations, particularly where passenger safety was involved,” the minister said.
There is a systematic safety oversight process in place for monitoring the compliance of Rules and Civil Aviation Requirements by the airlines, Scindia said, adding that this is a continuing process and includes surveillances, spot checks and regulatory audits embodied in Annual Surveillance Plan (ASP) of the DGCA.
The findings of safety oversight exercises are followed up with the concerned operator for compliance and the observations are closed only after due verification, he said.
“Further, the compliance of the Action Taken by the operator is verified during the next audit/ surveillance. In case of any violations/ non-compliance to regulations detected during audit/ surveillance, enforcement action including financial penalty is imposed by the DGCA,” the minister said in his reply.
