DGCA suspends Air India’s Flight Safety Chief for one month

Aviation watchdog DGCA on Thursday said it has suspended Tata Group-owned Air India’s Flight Safety Chief Rajeev Gupta for one month for certain lapses.
On July 25 and 26, the regulator’s team carried out surveillance of Air India in the areas of internal audit, accident prevention work, and availability of required technical manpower.
The surveillance found deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the organisation and the availability of the requisite technical manpower as required in the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements, DGCA said in a release. “The approval of the Chief of Flight Safety of Air India has been suspended for a period of one month for the lapses established,” it said.
Rajeev Gupta is the Chief of Flight Safety at Air India Ltd.
In the past, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had cracked a whip against the full-service private carrier for various alleged violations and lapses. Last month, the regulator suspended for 10 days the ATO approval of Air India’s training facilities in Mumbai and Hyderabad for certain lapses in simulator training.
“Further, it was observed that some of the internal audits and spot checks claimed to be carried out by the airline were done in a perfunctory manner and not as per the regulatory requirements,” the DGCA said in its statement on Thursday.
DGCA said after reviewing the action taken report submitted by the airline, it issued show-cause notices to the concerned post holders.