An International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) team of experts conducted a safety audit of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Monday.
The report of the audit, which is done under ICAO's "Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme", will be submitted within a fortnight. This is the first time that the ICAO is doing such a comprehensive safety audit in India.
The ICAO team is conducting a ten-day-long safety audit of India's Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). As part of the exercise, the team has visited several airports and DGCA offices across the country. The audit will end on October 19.
A senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) officer, who did not want to be identified, said the team visited the IGI Airport on Monday morning. The team, accompanied by several DGCA and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) officials spent five hours at the Delhi airport before leaving for Mumbai.
One member of the team, assisted by a senior DGCA official surveyed the aerodrome. The other three checked the Air Traffic Controller's (ATC) tower. The teams inspected, among other things, fire safety measures, aerodrome emergency planning, design of the runways and taxiways, aerodrome planning and design, visual ground aids, electrical systems, airport master planning, land use and environmental control, airport surface movement guidance and control systems, runway surface unevenness and bird hazards to aircraft.
At the ATC, the team inspected the civil and military coordination, air traffic services systems, flight and radar data processing systems, automated display systems, communication failure procedures, air traffic incident reporting and adequacy of distress and urgency communications procedures.
{{/usCountry}}At the ATC, the team inspected the civil and military coordination, air traffic services systems, flight and radar data processing systems, automated display systems, communication failure procedures, air traffic incident reporting and adequacy of distress and urgency communications procedures.
{{/usCountry}}The ICAO is a United Nations affiliate. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth.
The ICAO Council adopts standards and recommends practices concerning air navigation, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. It also defines the protocols for air accident investigation followed by transport safety authorities in countries signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, commonly known as the Chicago Convention.