A320 Plane Violations: Air India Grounds Aircraft Maintenance Engineer; Sets Up Panel On Action Against Pilots

Air India has grounded an aircraft maintenance engineer and has also set up a committee to decide on possible action against some pilots who were involved in operating an Airbus A320 neo plane multiple times without airworthiness certification in November, according to sources.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident reported on November 26. The regulator had asked the airline to carry out an internal probe to fix the responsibility and ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.

Following the A320 neo aircraft-related developments, Air India's Accountable Manager and Director of Flight Operations Manish Uppal has sent out a communication to all pilots, reminding them of their 'responsibility' regarding document validation, the sources told PTI.

However, some pilots are not happy with the communication, claiming that it amounts to 'passing the buck' for the violations that have happened with respect to the A320 neo plane operations. There was no comment from Air India.

The sources said the four-year old aircraft A320 neo aircraft VT-TNQ belonging to erstwhile Vistara was grounded for a long time and its airworthiness certificate had also expired.

On November 24, the airline decided to take the aircraft off the ground and conducted a proven flight over Delhi. On the same day, the said aircraft operated commercial services on Delhi-Bengaluru-Mumbai sector, as per the sources.

The next day, on November 25, the same aircraft operated commercial flights on Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Hyderabad-Mumbai then again Mumbai-Hyderabad- Mumbai. After these operations, the plane was sent for maintenance on the same day and that was when the engineers found that there was no valid airworthiness certification, they said.

Subsequently, the sources said the airline de-rostered an aircraft maintenance engineer and the flight operations committee was formed to review the matter and decide about the action against the pilots concerned.

The committee is looking at possible action to be taken against six to eight pilots, they said.

Meanwhile, Uppal, in the communication sent out on Monday, said it 'reiterates the mandatory requirement for all flight crew to verify the presence and validity of required aircraft documents prior to every flight, as stipulated in our approved operations manuals.' 'You are required to diligently verify these documents (as per Rule 7 of the Aircraft Rules 1937) to ensure their validity at all times, thereby enabling compliant flight operations in accordance with regulatory requirements and company policies/SOPs,' he said in the communication.

Along with the communication, a two-page document having the operations manual, including details about the documents to be carried on board, was sent to the pilots.

'Non-adherence to company policy or SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) will be viewed seriously and may attract action as per pilot policy handbook,' he said in the communication. As per Rule 7 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, all aircraft registered in India must carry the documents mandated by the relevant civil aviation requirement.

Sources in the pilot community said there are some 27 documents that should be on board an aircraft. If pilots were to check each and every document instead of the engineering department and people at the top ensuring that the airline's fleet was meeting all mandatory regulatory requirements, then the cockpit crew should be given an additional at least half an hour to carry out such tasks.

In its statement on Tuesday, DGCA said the airline informed it about the flying of the A320 aircraft with the expired Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) on eight revenue sectors.

ARC is issued annually in respect of an aircraft after a comprehensive review of its maintenance records, physical condition and verification of compliance with all airworthiness standards. It is a validation of an aircraft's main Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A). Under the norms, Air India has been delegated the powers to issue the ARC for an aircraft.