Air India violates flying norms, puts lives of passengers at risk

New Delhi: In the news yet again for wrong reasons, India's state air carrier Air India has been accused of flouting civil aviation guidelines and putting lives of hundreds of passengers at risk everyday.

A month before the Unites States aviation watchdog Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the agency that downgraded India to Category 2 of safety standards, is scheduled to come to India for an audit, reports reveal that Air India has been violating the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) norms.

The data from several voluntary reports of Air India's Delhi-Sydney and Sydney-Melbourne-Delhi flights shows the crew members were made to fly for 17-18 hours and perform two consecutive landings without the prescribed rest period.

Many of the crew members had lodged complaints regarding the matter and listed out the risk of being incapable of swift action in case of an emergency due to tiredness.

According to the latest Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) guidelines, Series J Part 1 effective from June 14 2014, an international operation with flight time between 11-14 hours, the flight duty time limitation cannot exceed beyond 16 hours a day.

As per the norms, if the flight time exceeds beyond 11 hours then horizontal in-flight rest is mandatory. The flight has been operating since August 2013 and despite repeated complaints neither Air India nor the DGCA has paid any heed to these violations.

The airline has also allegedly misled crew members. Notices issued over the past year claim that DGCA had given approval to extend flight duty times to 20 hours and allowed two landings.

However an RTI response available with CNN-IBN signed by DGCA Air Safety Director says that no such dispensation was ever given to Air India.

Responding to the situation, Aviation Experts expressed their displeasure. "This is exactly why we were downgraded by FAA. The DGCA does not have manpower and efficiency to ensure violations. Europe will also downgrade us like this," aviation expert Capt Shakti Lumba.

Reacting to the allegations, Air India said that the airline is carrying out a risk assessment analysis for Australia sector. They are seeking information from cabin crew, doctors and flight safety experts to provide final safety risk assessment, once data is collated it will be submitted to DGCA. "No violation of DGCA rules as two landings being carried out in consultation with DGCA," the state carrier added.

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