The regulator conducted a spot audit in Jan and found violations, such as both pilots operating a flight being aged above 60. “The operator (Air India) was also found deficient in providing adequate weekly rest; adequate rest before and after ultra-long range 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…were also observed during the audit,” DGCA said in a statement. After the audit, the regulator had served a show-cause notice to the airline on March 1, but its response was not found satisfactory.
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DGCA said the spot audit was conducted for “verifying the regulatory compliance by the operator in respect of FDTL and FMS regulations as a proactive step towards ensuring a high level of safety in aviation”.
Air India has been fined by the regulator several times in the last one-and-a-half years for various lapses.