THESE airlines in India are operating Boeing 737 plane involved in China crash

Image for representation (PTI)

DGCA, India's aviation safety watchdog, on March 21, said they have increased the monitoring of the Boeing 737 fleet operated by Indian air carriers. The announcement of enhanced surveillance came after a Boeing 737-800 plane operated by China Eastern Airlines with 132 people on board crashed on Monday. Chinese local media reports stated that no survivors are found. 

DGCA's chairman, Arun Kumar, said they have increased the monitoring of the Boeing 737 fleet operated by SpiceJet, Vistara, and Air India Express. Currently, only these three air carriers operate the predecessor to controversial 737 Max plane. Other prominent brands like IndiGo operates an all Airbus fleet of A320 and A321s.

Air India, on the other hand, has a mixed bag of planes. They are operating narrow body planes sourced from Airbus and wide body planes sourced from Boeing. The Boeing 737 is a narrow body plane and also the most-sold plane in the world, with China alone having a total fleet more than 1,000 planes of this category alone. 

While the Boeing 737 family comprises of 737-900, 737-800, 737 MAX among others, it's not clear whether DGCA has enhanced the surveillance only for Boeing 737-800 involved in China crash or all plane categories under the 737 family. Here's a look at the Indian carriers operating Boeing 737 family of aircrafts- 

Spicejet 

Boeing 737-900: 5

Boeing 737 MAX 8: 13 

Boeing 737-800: 36

Boeing 737-700: 5

Vistara

Boeing 737-800: 5

Boeing 737-900: 2

Air India Express

Boeing 737-800: 25

The Boeing 737 Max aircraft is an advanced version of the Boeing 737-800, and was involved in two crashes between October 2018 and March 2019, killing all 346 people. A ban on the Boeing 737 Max plane in India was passed by the DGCA in March 2019 and was later lifted in August 2021 after Boeing completed software rectifications to the satisfaction of the agency.