DGCA warns staff with kin in airlines

India’s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has barred nine of its officers from taking any decisions regarding airlines where their wards work, as part of an ongoing campaign to cleanse the system.
In a 3 May note issued with the approval of DGCA director general Bharat Bhushan and reviewed by Mint, the regulator asked joint director general Charan Dass whose ward works in SpiceJet Ltd, joint director general A.K. Sharan whose ward works for IndiGo, run by InterGlobe Aviation Pvt. Ltd, director of airworthiness V.P. Massey whose wards work for SpiceJet and IndiGo, director of air safety R.S. Passi whose ward works for SpiceJet, and five others from having anything to do with the respective airlines.
Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Air India Ltd are other airlines employing wards of senior DGCA officials.
While there is no evidence yet that these officers favoured the airlines that employed their wards, investigations by Mint and The Times of India have shown that wards of Passi and Sharan were hired as pilots despite concerns about their ability to safely pilot aircraft.
“There is a question of collateral responsibility. This officer sitting in DGCA has obviously used his influence to get his ward in to one of the airlines. That’s an inference you can draw. And I would readily draw that inference,” Bhushan said in an interview on 28 March.
06/05/11 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2011