Air India Under Scrutiny As Government Orders Safety Overhaul Within A Month

The government has directed Air India Group to re-evaluate its operations within 30 days, ensuring passenger safety, amid a noticeable uptick in technical issues, emergency landings, and a recent fire incident that have raised serious concerns about the airline’s safety standards.

Sources familiar with the matter told NDTV Profit that high-level talks between government officials and management of Air India and Air India Express took place on July 23, focusing on the urgent need to fix safety issues and restoring passenger confidence in the airline’s operations.

The directive comes amid a series of troubling incidents such as Tuesday's fire to the auxiliary power unit of an Airbus A321 that flew from Hong Kong to Delhi. The fire broke out after the plane landed. It was contained and there were no injuries. Twenty-four hours prior there two other incidents - a Kochi-Mumbai flight veered off the runaway and suffered damage to an engine cover, and a Delhi-Kolkata flight aborted take-off at the last minute. Similarly, on July 24, a Delhi-Mumbai Air India Express plane rejected take-off as there was a glitch with the screens displaying the aircraft's speed.

Air India, including its subsidiary Air India Express reported as many as 85 technical snags so far this year — the highest number among industry peers, according to data shared by civil aviation ministry with Lok Sabha.

The Tata Group airline has been facing turbulence since a London-bound Boeing Dreamliner crashed moments after taking off on June 12, killing 260. Preliminary report into the investigation of the incident found that the fuel control switches were flipped almost simultaneously after takeoff and there was pilot confusion in the cockpit. One pilot asked the other why he cut off the fuel and got a response that he hadn't done so, the report said.

Separately, the DGCA sent four notices to Air India, asking the Tata Group airline to respond within 15 days about multiple violations related to crew duty and rest norms as well as training protocols. These notices cite 29 violations, including pilots not receiving mandated rest periods, insufficient training for operations at high-altitude airports, inadequate simulator training compliance, and operating international flights without the required number of cabin crew. With this, the domestic carrier has now received 13 notices in the past six months for various safety lapses.

Officials said Air India’s operations will be reviewed again after a month and further measures will be taken depending on the outcome.