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Federal Aviation Administration to audit DGCA's corrective steps; Non-scheduled operations to the US on radar
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Federal Aviation Administration to audit DGCA's corrective steps; Non-scheduled operations to the US on radar
Oct 19, 2018 8:01 AM

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will visit India during the end of October to audit the corrective steps taken by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on the observations made by the US regulator in July, said a source familiar with the matter.

"The FAA team is due for the visit on October 30-31. It is to check closure of the issues flagged during the last audit," the source told CNBC-TV18.

The FAA had audited the Indian regulator for the third time since 2013 in July over a five-day time period from 16th to 20th. Under its International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme, FAA also conducted an audit of DGCA in the areas covering aircraft operations, airworthiness and personnel licensing.

"At the end of the five-day audit, the FAA team gave a verbal out-brief listing the observations which relate to regulatory and guidance material issues within DGCA. Overall the audit has been very satisfactory," DGCA had said in a statement after the completion of the audit in July without divulging the details of the observations.

One of the concerns raised by the US body was about the NSOPs (non-scheduled operators) or charter planes flying to the US and the lack of type-rated flight operation inspectors for the aircraft used for these operations, the source said requesting anonymity.

"Some 6 FOIs (flight operation inspectors) have been sent to various training centres abroad to get type-rating on these aircraft such as Learjet, Embraer, Global700," the source added.

During the course of the audit, the FAA team was shown regulations including extensive technical guidance in the areas of operations, airworthiness, surveillance and enforcement for the use of safety inspectors of DGCA for carrying out licensing, certification, and approval obligations along with certification records.

The training programme provided to the technical officers and inspectors and records therein was also shown, DGCA had said in July.

The flaws flagged by the FAA assume significance as they come against the backdrop of the International Civil Aviation Organisation's recent Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, which rated India even below Pakistan and Nepal in the surveillance of air safety.

However, the regulator has been extremely cautious about the FAA audit as it will play a crucial role in the expansion plans of the domestic airlines in the US.

The US body had downgraded the safety ranking of DGCA in the 2013 audit due to shortcomings in strengthening aviation safety mechanism. While the safety status was restored in April 2015 after DGCA took corrective steps, the move had hit all expansion plans of Indian carriers as far as the US was concerned.

Indian flights operating to the US also came under greater scrutiny. Domestic airlines also faced difficulties in benefitting from codeshare flights operating to the US.

With India being the fastest growing aviation market and Indian carriers planning long-haul operations, the comments by FAA on the Indian aviation safety standards will be keenly eyed by all stakeholders.

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