New Delhi: A two-member inspection team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has found lapses in internal safety audits of Air India and the regulator is probing the matter, according to officials.
When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said that all airlines are subject to regular safety audits by regulators and other bodies.
“Air India actively engages in such audits to continually assess and strengthen our processes,” the spokesperson said in a statement and added that the airline directly addresses any matters raised with the authority concerned.
According to the inspection report submitted to the DGCA, the airline was supposed to carry out regular safety spot checks in various areas of operations such as cabin surveillance, cargo, ramp and load but during a random inspection of 13 safety points, the team found that the airline prepared false reports in all 13 cases.
“Moreover, when cross-verified with CCTV, recordings, auditee statements, shift register documents, GD (General Declaration) list, passenger manifest etc, it is understood that all the aforesaid 13 spot checks shown to be carried out in stations Mumbai, Goa and Delhi were verified and were established to have not been actually performed,” the two-member team said in the ‘Deficiency Reporting Form’ (DRF).
The inspection found that these reports “were subsequently prepared/falsified when demanded by the DGCA team”.
Further, the inspection report noted that these forged spot check reports were not signed by the Chief of Flight Safety (CFS) who has the authority to do it.
The team visited Air India’s office in Gurugram in Haryana on July 25 and 26, and after inspection, they mentioned the lapses in the DRF.
When contacted, DGCA Director General Vikram Dev Dutt said the matter is being investigated by the regulator.
According to the inspection report, the checklists were physically signed by an auditor from the Quality Management System (QMS) Department which does not fall under the approval and inspection scope of the DGCA and has different eligibility criteria/qualification industry standards.
The inspection report said the team did not find any written communication for the delegation of authority to the auditor. “Also other than verbal confirmation by CFS, there were no email correspondences and authorisation by the CFS for the aforementioned sport checks,” it said.
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