New Delhi: India hopes to regain its Category 1 status on air safety from the US Federal Aviation Authority by June, which would make it one of the fastest reinstatements. The civil aviation ministry would ask the FAA to conduct a fresh safety audit of India’s aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The FAA had downgraded India’s aviation safety rating for the first time to Category 2 on January 31 citing inadequate oversight mechanism and lower staff strength with the DGCA to properly monitor the safety performance of Indian carriers.
A senior aviation ministry official told FE an internal review meeting was held on Friday, adding that the remaining issues highlighted by the FAA would be resolved in about a month. Of the 31 issues originally raised by the FAA in its audit of the DGCA last September, two issues remained as of January — the appointment of 75 flight operations inspectors (FOIs), and the training of an adequate number of airworthiness officers for new aircraft.
“There is still some time left for fresh applications for the FOIs and we aim to scrutinise these applications in a week. It should take us about five weeks to complete the appointment of the 75 new FOIs. As for airworthiness officers, training will be completed by this month. We have launched a campaign to fill all the vacant posts in the DGCA, about 73 people have joined, and around 40 more will follow,” the official said.
08/03/14 Roudra Bhattacharya/Financial Express
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The FAA had downgraded India’s aviation safety rating for the first time to Category 2 on January 31 citing inadequate oversight mechanism and lower staff strength with the DGCA to properly monitor the safety performance of Indian carriers.
A senior aviation ministry official told FE an internal review meeting was held on Friday, adding that the remaining issues highlighted by the FAA would be resolved in about a month. Of the 31 issues originally raised by the FAA in its audit of the DGCA last September, two issues remained as of January — the appointment of 75 flight operations inspectors (FOIs), and the training of an adequate number of airworthiness officers for new aircraft.
“There is still some time left for fresh applications for the FOIs and we aim to scrutinise these applications in a week. It should take us about five weeks to complete the appointment of the 75 new FOIs. As for airworthiness officers, training will be completed by this month. We have launched a campaign to fill all the vacant posts in the DGCA, about 73 people have joined, and around 40 more will follow,” the official said.
08/03/14 Roudra Bhattacharya/Financial Express
