Aviation Body To Conduct 15% Additional Safety Checks This Year: Sources

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will conduct 15 per cent additional safety checks this year, raising the total number of checks to 4,630 from 4,027 in 2024, sources told NDTV on Monday.

The focus areas will include aircraft maintenance, pilot standards, and airport safety, they said.

The aviation safety regulator's step follows the June 12 crash of an Air India plane in Ahmedabad. The London-bound aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed within a minute of taking off from Ahmedabad and ploughed into a medical college hostel, killing 260 people onboard and on the ground.

The DGCA then carried out a comprehensive surveillance at major airports on June 24 and flagged several deficiencies, including reported defects reappearing on aircraft, life vests not being properly secured under seats, and the line marking of a runway being faded.

In an official statement, the aviation body did not reveal the names of the airlines, maintenance firms or airports, but said a domestic flight of a carrier had been held up due to worn tyres, a simulator did not match the aircraft configuration, and the work order was not followed for maintenance of the aircraft.

"(There were) multiple cases wherein the reported defects reappeared many times on the aircraft, indicating the ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action on the defects/ repeated defects... ground handling equipment, such as baggage trollies, were found unserviceable... safety precautions were not taken by AME (aircraft maintenance engineering)," the statement said.

"Similarly, at an airport, centre line marking of runway was observed faded; The rapid exit taxiway, green centre light were not unidirectional; the obstruction limitation data has not been updated for last three years and no survey has been performed despite many new construction around the vicinity of aerodrome; (a) number of vehicles in the ramp area were found without speed governors," it said.

In some cases, defect reports generated by the aircraft system were not found recorded in the technical logbook, and, in one instance, the corrosion-resistant tape on the right-hand side winglet's lower blade was found damaged.