DGCA imposes ₹90 lakh fine on Air India for crew violation

The national civil aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), imposed a financial penalty of ₹90 lakh on Air India on Friday for operating a flight with "unqualified" crew members, according to the DGCA statement. The incident involved pairing a non-trainer line captain with a first officer who was not released for line duty.

Additionally, the director of operations and the director of training at Air India were fined ₹6 lakh and ₹3 lakh, respectively. This issue was brought to the DGCA's attention through a voluntary report submitted by the airline on July 10, 2024.

“It has been viewed by the regulator as a serious scheduling incident having significant safety ramifications,” DGCA said.

Following the report, the regulator carried out a detailed investigation into Air India’s operations, which included reviewing documents and conducting a spot inspection of the airline’s scheduling system. The investigation uncovered multiple regulatory breaches and deficiencies that could have jeopardised safety.

The DGCA, after receiving explanations from the involved flight commander and DGCA-approved post holders at Air India in response to show-cause notices issued on July 22, 2024, found their responses unsatisfactory. Consequently, the regulator imposed the fines and warned the concerned pilot to exercise greater caution in the future.

Earlier this year, the DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to Air India after passengers on two separate flights experienced insufficient cabin cooling during lengthy delays. The regulator criticised the airline for repeatedly failing to care for its passengers.

The notice came when passengers suffered a significant delay of around 24 hrs, when an international Air India flight was scheduled to depart from Delhi around 3:30 pm on Thursday, but it took off at 3 pm on the next day. Around 200 passengers were on board, some of whom fainted due to a non-functional air-conditioning system.

Additionally, Air India faced a penalty of ₹80 lakh in March for breaching rules related to flight duty time limitations (FDTL), which are designed to prevent fatigue-related incidents by ensuring they get adequate rest.

In February, the DGCA had slapped a show cause notice to the Tata Group-owned airline for shortage of wheelchairs, due to which a passenger died of a heart attack. It was reported that the octogenarian passenger and his wife had to walk for a distance of around 1.5 km from the plane to the immigration counter. The airline faced a ₹30 lakh fine for mishandling.

In January, the airline was fined ₹30 lakh for not having enough trained pilots on duty for low-visibility landings.