India's aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended Air India's Chief of Flight Safety for a month after an inspection found lapses in the airline's accident prevention protocol, reported IANS. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the Tata Group owned airline and the availability of the requisite technical manpower as required in the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant civil aviation requirements.


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“A team carried out an inspection of Air India on July 25 and 26 in the areas of internal audit, accident prevention work and the availability of required technical manpower,” said an official of the aviation watchdog. “It was observed that some of the internal audit/spot checks carried out by the airline were done in a perfunctory manner and not as per the regulatory requirements,” added DGCA. 


After reviewing the action taken report submitted by the airline, the DGCA issued show cause notices to Air India's officials concerned. “Based on the review of the replies received, the airline has been directed not to assign any audits/surveillance/spot checks pertaining to compliance of DGCA requirements to the particular auditor involved in the perfunctory inspections which indicates lack of diligence,” said the official.


“Further the approval of the Chief of Flight Safety of Air India has been suspended for a period of one month for the lapses established,” the official added. Earlier, DGCA had also imposed Rs 3 lakh fine on Air India’s Director of in-flight services for failing to discharge her duties.