DGCA fines Air India Rs 80 lakh for violating crew obligation time guidelines

NEW DELHI: The Directorate Basic of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a superb of Rs 80 lakh on Air India for violating rules pertaining to Flight Obligation Time Limitations (FDTL) and fatigue administration system (FMS) of flight crew. “As a proactive step towards ensuring a high level of safety in aviation,” the regulator says it had performed a spot audit of AI this January for “verifying the regulatory compliance by the operator in respect of FDTL and FMS regulations.” Air India has been fined by the regulator a number of occasions within the 1.5 years for numerous lapses.Following the audit, the DGCa discovered some violations like each pilots working a flight being over 60 years of age. “The operator (AI) was also found deficient in providing adequate weekly rest, adequate rest before & after ultra-long range (ULR) flights and adequate rest on layover to flight crew, which violates the extant provisions of the Civil Aviation Requirements pertaining to FDTL. Moreover, the instances of exceeding duty periods, wrongly marked training records, overlapping duties etc. were also observed during the audit,” stated an official.After the audit, the regulator has served a present trigger discover to AI on March 1, in search of their response to the findings of the audit. “The operator submitted its response to the notice which was not found satisfactory… a fine of Rs 80 lakh has been imposed on the operator,” the regulator stated, including, “DGCA is committed to maintaining the highest levels of safety in the civil aviation sector in India and this enforcement action is in line with its commitment.”

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