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Durgapur accident: DGCA suspends pilot's licence for 6 months
The budget carrier may have also violated safety protocols, investigations by the Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) have revealed, an official said.
Three months after some passengers were injured due to turbulence on a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur, the aviation regulator has suspended the pilot’s licence for six months for ignoring his co-pilot’s warnings.
The budget carrier may have also violated safety protocols, investigations by the Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) have revealed, an official said. The board is yet to submit its report.
The pilot was additionally found to have reacted late to the turbulence, worsening the situation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said. “The co-pilot of the flight had warned of the turbulence ahead, but the pilot decided to go ahead, and his judgement proved to be wrong,” a directorate official said, asking not to be named.
The incident occurred when flight SG 945 with 195 passengers took off from Mumbai on May 1 and was descending for the destination airport. The Boeing B737-800 aircraft managed to land safely, but 14 passengers and three cabin crew were injured during air turbulence.
The regulator had on May 3 taken both pilot and co-pilot of the flight off the roster, pending an investigation that was later escalated to the AAIB. “Our investigation revealed that the pilot’s announcement to wear seat belts came at the last minute, leading to more injuries,” a board official said, declining to be named.
“The airline seemed to have tried to tamper evidence by flying the aircraft after basic rectifications from Durgapur to Kolkata after passengers deboarded, thus violating norms,” the official added.
The SpiceJet plane’s weather radar was also not functioning properly, investigators have found. “Details about this will be revealed in the report,” the AAIB official said.
There have been recent concerns over SpiceJet violating safety norms. The aviation regulator on July 27 restricted the airline’s summer schedule flights by half, saying that the budget carrier had failed to establish its services were safe, efficient and reliable.
At least nine SpiceJet flights between May 1 and July 6 witnessed “incidents”, as DGCA and the airline term them, which range from cracked windscreens to malfunctioning instruments, HT has reported earlier.
The pilot was called at the DGCA office and informed about his suspension. “The pilot was called by the DGCA this week to inform about the suspension,” the DGCA official said.
“If the airline had permitted the aircraft to fly with a faulty radar, then the airline should also be taken to task for violating serious safety norms,” said Mohan Ranganathan, an aviation safety expert . “With the airline’s current situation, many of the pilots are forced to fly because of threats to their jobs. By just blaming the pilots, DGCA is taking the soft option.”
“The airline flew the aircraft to Kolkata from Durgapur after the incident and, hence, it should be punished for this,” Ranganathan said. “Flying out after turbulence checks without radar is a criminal offence.”
There was no immediate response from SpiceJet on the matter.
