DGCA suspends Air India’s Chief of Flight Safety over lapses found during surveillance

New Delhi: The Chief of Flight Safety of Air India has been suspended for a period of one month for the lapses found during a surveillance done by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The civil aviation regulator confirming the development on Thursday said the surveillance found deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the airline and the availability of the requisite technical manpower as required in the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements.
In a statement, DGCA informed that its officials carried out the surveillance of Air India on July 25-26, 2023 in the areas of internal audit, accident prevention work, and availability of required technical manpower.
Further, it was observed that some of the internal audit/spot checks claimed to be carried out by the airline were done in a perfunctory manner and not as per the regulatory requirements.  
Based on the review of the replies received, the airline has been directed not to assign any audits/surveillance/spot checks pertaining to compliance of DGCA requirements to the particular auditor involved in the perfunctory inspections which indicates lack of diligence.