DGCA adopts three pronged approach to check on AI, IA plane snags

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has worked out a three-pronged check for all aircraft being flown by Air India and Indian Airlines. The DGCA's move comes on the back of repeated aircraft failures, which have been giving the two State-owned carriers a bad profile in the increasingly competitive world of Indian aviation.

According to a plan chalked out by the DGCA, the airlines' maintenance engineers would thoroughly check all the planes within two days as part of the first stage. This would be followed by repeat checks from quality assurance teams of AI and IA. In the third stage, DGCA teams will check the entire fleet.

The DGCA had earlier asked Indian Airlines and Air India to give a list of snags suffered, and planes grounded, over the past six months. A meeting between airline officials and the DGCA took place over the issue on Monday and Tuesday.

According to government officials, initial analysis of the snags suffered by aircraft, belonging to these airlines, had not revealed any alarming faults. They asserted that the national carriers were not releasing planes with defects for flights and that safety of passengers was not jeopardised in any way.

As for the large number of failures reported by these aircraft, officials said that snags suffered by AI planes were within international norms. IA planes, they said, suffered from slightly larger number of snags as it operated with an older fleet and also with a larger number of leased aircraft.

The DGCA has also set up a committee to interact with airlines and aircraft manufacturers to prevent such incidents. The panel will coordinate with airlines and manufacturers, especially Boeing and Airbus Industries.