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53 spot checks done on 48 SpiceJet aircraft: Govt to Rajya Sabha
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation conducted 53 spot checks on 48 SpiceJet aircraft over five days earlier this month, but did not find any major violation of safety guidelines, minister of state for civil aviation V K Singh informed Parliament
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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) , India’s aviation regulator, conducted 53 spot checks on 48 SpiceJet aircraft over five days earlier this month, but did not find any major violation of safety guidelines, minister of state for civil aviation V K Singh informed Parliament on Monday.
The regulator asked SpiceJet to use 10 of the aircraft only after “confirming to the regulator that all reported defects/malfunctions are rectified”, he added in a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The nature of the issues with these 10 aircraft wasn’t immediately clear.
The checks were carried out between July 9 and July 13, and started days after the regulator issued a notice to the airline in the wake of a spate of incidents — at least eight since May.
The incidents include those related to malfunctioning equipment and cracked windscreens.
“A series of spot checks were carried out recently on all operating aircraft of Spicejet from July 9, 2022 to July 13, 2022. A total of 53 spot checks were carried out on 48 aircraft which did not find any major significant finding or safety violation,” Singh said in his response to a query from Aam Aadmi Party member Narain Das Gupta.
A SpiceJet spokesperson told HT: “All aircraft are back in operation. Whatever rectification was required was done immediately.”
Asked if there was any delay on part of DGCA to issue a show-cause notice to the airline, the minister said: “There has been no delay in issuing the notice.”
Though DGCA did not comment on the nature of the issues, its officials requesting anonymity said 10 SpiceJet aircraft were grounded after the spot checks were done.
In its notice to SpiceJet on July 6 DGCA said the budget carrier had failed to establish its services were safe, efficient and reliable. It also cited a review from last year that found “poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions” by the airline.
Singh also said that a “financial assessment of SpiceJet carried out in September 2021 had revealed that the airline was operating on ‘cash & carry’ and suppliers/approved vendors are not being paid on a regular basis leading to shortage of spares and frequent invoking of minimum equipment lists (MELs).”
An MEL is a list of certified equipment issued by the DGCA before flying. A certified aircraft maintenance engineer (AME), however, is allowed to release an aircraft for flying if certain listed equipment is not available.
The DGCA has carried out a regulatory audit of Vistara, Bluedart, IndiGo, and SpiceJet as per published Annual Surveillance Programme (ASP) 2022, including a special safety audit of Alliance Air, Singh said in his response.
