According to reports, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) notified the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that it had undertaken 353 spot investigations and surveillance in 77 days as part of a special drive.

The data was presented in a written reply to a question about the number of cases of aircraft accidents that have occurred over the past three years and the steps the government has taken to prevent the occurrence of such incidents the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, General Dr. VK Singh (Retd).

According to Singh, from the year 2019 to July 22, 2022, a total of 8 accidents involving operators of scheduled airlines had been recorded.

SpiceJet was only involved in one such incident in 2019 while two accidents involving Air India Express and IndiGo occurred in 2020.

One each involving Air India Express, and Vistara, while the other two involving Indigo occurred in 2021. There has only been one SpiceJet incident in 2022 so far.

He continued by saying that the government had taken steps to limit the number of accidents, including routinely analyzing accident/incident data and issuing advisory circulars to inform operators of significant observations/findings in order to prevent the recurrence of the accidents/incidents.

For the purpose of ensuring that laws and civil aviation requirements are being followed, a formal mechanism of safety supervision is in existence.

The process of safety oversight entails observation, spot checks, and regulatory audits. Special audits are also conducted in accordance with the perceived risk, he noted.

Naresh Bansal, a Rajya Sabha BJP member from Uttrakhand, has questioned the government’s attempts to lower the number of these accidents and the specifics of those efforts, as well as the total number of air accidents that have occurred over the past three years as a result of trainee pilots flying too low, broken down by year.

Singh stated that the Annual Surveillance Plan directs the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to undertake surveillance and spot checks (ASP). Audit, surveillance, and spot check results are followed up on with the relevant operator to ensure compliance. After proper verification, the observations are concluded.

The following inspection or surveillance verifies if the operator’s actions were in compliance. The DGCA will take enforcement action, including levying a fine, if any abnormalities or noncompliance with regulations are found during audit or surveillance.

“Safety recommendations emanating from the investigation reports are followed up for implementation with the concerned agencies so as to prevent recurrence of a similar incident in future,” he said.

The DGCA conducted 353 spot checks as part of a special drive from May 2 to July 13, 2022, he added, increasing the frequency of spot checks and monitoring.

In the past three years, NO accidents have occurred as a result of low flying by trainee pilots.

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Recently, many airlines have reported malfunction and because of this several emergency landings have occurred in the past few months. While DGCA has ordered many airlines for enquiry, the question still remains that will these airlines be grounded?

Today itself there was another incident in which GO First plane’s windshield cracked mid-air. Due to this, the flight was then diverted to Jaipur as it was destined from Delhi to Guwahati.

Several flights have been reported to have done emergency landings. Some of them were reported to be landed in Karachi and Islamabad Pakistan. Some news agencies in Pakistan even made fun of the never-ending emergency landings of these Indian airlines in Pakistan.

Indigo airlines even officially stated that these are just minor incidents that happen all the time. However, when it comes down to passengers’ safety it is of utmost importance that airline carriers keep extra caution.

DGCA which is The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is a statutory body of the Government of India to regulate civil aviation in India. This government body has all the powers that it can ground any airline. But grounding an airline means a lot of cost for the airline in the question itself. So far the DGCA has ordered multiple enquiries as to why this thing is still happening and is still not stopping.

The DGCA has already laid out the rules of operations over the aviation sector. However, it is our opinion poor maintenance can be a major part of these never stopping emergency landings.

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The GoAir A 320 aircraft VT-WGA flight g8-386 (Mumbai-Leh) was diverted to Delhi today. The flight had to be diverted due to fault in Engine No.2 EIU (Engine Interface Unit). 

On the other hand, the Go Air A320 aircraft VT-WJG flight G8-6202 (Srinagar – Delhi) is involved in air turnback. This happened due to Eng#2 overlimit as reported by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). 

The DGCA is investigating both the aircrafts, which they have kept grounded for the meantime.  Both these flights will fly again only after they are cleared by the DGCA. 

We are investigating and in the meanwhile, both these aircraft are being grounded and shall fly only when cleared by DGCA: Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)

— ANI (@ANI) July 19, 2022

Indian airlines have been facing technical faults frequently recently. Three International airlines made emergency landings within 48 hours as on 17 July 2022. These landings happened in Calicut, Chennai and Kolkata. 

On Saturday there were emergency landings of foreign operators too. Air Arabia did emergency landing at Cochin due to hydraulic issues and Ethiopian at Kolkata due to pressurisation issues. Additionally on Friday there were emergency landing of Srilankan Airlines at Chennai too. 

On 17 July Morning, a Hyderabad bound IndiGo Airliner had to do an emergency landing at Pakistan’s Karachi. The IndiGo flight 6E-1406 was diverted to Karachi due to technical faults. An additional flight was sent to bring back the passengers to Hyderabad. 

DGCA has been carrying out detailed investigation in all of the cases. 

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Passengers who do not wear masks on a trip may be considered “unruly” and removed from the plane before takeoff, according to an aviation organisation.

The DGCA further said such passengers will be removed from the aircraft before departure.

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The DGCA stated that IndiGo should revisit their rules and regulations to bring necessary changes on handling specially abled passengers better.

CEO Ronojoy Dutta’s statement –

Henceforth, CEO Ronojoy Dutta stated that, ‘IndiGo will conduct an internal case study on how to better handle specially-abled passengers, especially when they are feeling distressed.’

The aviation company was fined Rs 5 lakhs penalty by DGCA for denying a special needs child for boarding on May 7.

However, a specially abled passenger was not permitted to board the Ranchi – Hyderabad flight as he was in panic condition.

Likewise, the official of airlines stated that the airlines will take note of DGCA instructions.

‘So, they have said a few things. They have said that in a situation like this, call the airport doctor.’ the CEO stated.

Furthermore, he added that, ‘And yes, we have put that in our SOPs (standard operating procedures) that whenever a situation like this arises, always consult the airport doctor’.

‘The DGCA had asked that IndiGo should try and improve the training of staff in terms of such sensitive cases’, he added.

We already have strong training for staff and crew members, but still we’ll do our own case study on the directions of DGCA and see what we can improve and learn, says the CEO.

The training for cabin crew members –

Ronojoy Dutta stated that airlines have about 100 of the foregoing trainers for doing special training of crew members and ground staff.

The apex regulator on last Saturday said that the ground staff of airlines have lacked in handling the child and worsened the situation.

‘A more compassionate behaviour would have made things easier.’

‘It would have calmed the child and would have obviate the need for the extreme step resulting in denied boarding to the passengers,’ DGCA mentions.

Henceforth, the regulator asked for revisiting their own rules and regulations to avoid such situations in future.

And also make it mandatory for airlines to take the airport doctor’s written opinion on the health of a passenger before making a decision to deny boarding.

Moreover, DGCA stated that there should be a written consultation with the captain of the aircraft for his or her opinion on allowing such a passenger on board.

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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated that IndiGo airlines Ranchi ground staff have lacked in handling a special needs child at the airport.

DGCA statements

DGCA is the apex regulator for air travel.

The regulator fined IndiGo Rs 5 Lakhs for not allowing the special needs child to board the flight.

The DGCA stated, ‘the ground staff had lacked in handling the child and worsened the situation.’

A more compassionate behaviour would have made things easier, calmed the child and would have obviated the need for the extreme step resulting in denied boarding to the passengers, added DGCA.

‘Special situations deserve extraordinary responses but the Airline staff failed to rise up to the occasion and in the process committed lapses in adherence to the letter and spirit of the Civil Aviation Requirements (Regulations),’ read the statement by the authority.

Henceforth, the DGCA imposed a fine of 5 Lakhs on IndiGo airlines due to such unexpected behaviour by IndiGo’s staff.

The regulator added that to prevent such situations in future, the staff shall revisit its rules and regulations and bring about necessary changes.

The incident

This incident at the airport has received widespread criticism and asked the regulator to launch an inquiry.

The incident came into the limelight when Manisha Gupta, a passenger on the Ranchi – Hyderabad flight on May 7, narrated the calamity of the special needs child and her parents.

Ms Gupta added that the manager kept shouting that the ‘child is uncontrollable’!

Later, the other passengers marshalled around the family and urged the staff to let them on board and not tense them.

The video of this incident has spread on social media and criticism against IndiGo staff is all over the media platforms.

CEO’s comments

Likewise, the IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta commented that they were ‘forced to make a difficult decision’.

‘Throughout the check-in and boarding process our intent of course was to carry the family, however, at the boarding area the teenager was visibly in panic.’ he added

The CEO continued, While providing courteous and compassionate service to our customers is of paramount importance to us, the airport staff, in line with the safety guidelines, were forced to make a difficult decision as to whether this commotion would carry forward aboard the aircraft’.

However, the airlines provided a Hotel stay to the family and the family flew the next morning to their destination.

Earlier this month, DGCA issued a show-cause notice to the airline.

‘The findings of the committee prima facie indicate inappropriate handling of passengers by the Indigo staff thereby resulting in certain non-conformances with the applicable regulations,’ says DGCA.

The Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia commented that ‘there is zero-tolerance for such behaviour, no human being should have to go through this.

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