Aircraft Accidents: DGCA has conducted about 353 spot checks and surveillance since 2019
According to reports, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) notified the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that it had undertaken 353 spot investigations and surveillance in 77 days as part of a special drive.
The data was presented in a written reply to a question about the number of cases of aircraft accidents that have occurred over the past three years and the steps the government has taken to prevent the occurrence of such incidents the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, General Dr. VK Singh (Retd).
According to Singh, from the year 2019 to July 22, 2022, a total of 8 accidents involving operators of scheduled airlines had been recorded.
SpiceJet was only involved in one such incident in 2019 while two accidents involving Air India Express and IndiGo occurred in 2020.
One each involving Air India Express, and Vistara, while the other two involving Indigo occurred in 2021. There has only been one SpiceJet incident in 2022 so far.
He continued by saying that the government had taken steps to limit the number of accidents, including routinely analyzing accident/incident data and issuing advisory circulars to inform operators of significant observations/findings in order to prevent the recurrence of the accidents/incidents.
For the purpose of ensuring that laws and civil aviation requirements are being followed, a formal mechanism of safety supervision is in existence.
The process of safety oversight entails observation, spot checks, and regulatory audits. Special audits are also conducted in accordance with the perceived risk, he noted.
Naresh Bansal, a Rajya Sabha BJP member from Uttrakhand, has questioned the government’s attempts to lower the number of these accidents and the specifics of those efforts, as well as the total number of air accidents that have occurred over the past three years as a result of trainee pilots flying too low, broken down by year.
Singh stated that the Annual Surveillance Plan directs the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to undertake surveillance and spot checks (ASP). Audit, surveillance, and spot check results are followed up on with the relevant operator to ensure compliance. After proper verification, the observations are concluded.
The following inspection or surveillance verifies if the operator’s actions were in compliance. The DGCA will take enforcement action, including levying a fine, if any abnormalities or noncompliance with regulations are found during audit or surveillance.
“Safety recommendations emanating from the investigation reports are followed up for implementation with the concerned agencies so as to prevent recurrence of a similar incident in future,” he said.
The DGCA conducted 353 spot checks as part of a special drive from May 2 to July 13, 2022, he added, increasing the frequency of spot checks and monitoring.
In the past three years, NO accidents have occurred as a result of low flying by trainee pilots.
