Air India was served with nine notices for safety violations in the last six months: Aviation ministry

Air India was served with nine notices in connection with safety violations, said the Civil Aviation ministry in a response to a question at the Rajya Sabha. In the last six months, however, there were no “adverse trend” reported in the reliability reports of the crashed plane.

Responding to a question by CPI (M) leader Dr John Brittas at the Upper House, Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, said, “During the last six months, no adverse trend has been reported in reliability reports of Air India in respect of crashed aircraft.”

Brittas had asked if any adverse observations regarding safety or flightworthiness of the crashed airline were flagged before the accident by passengers or the DGCA during the last six months. He also asked for details if such communications were issued in the last six months.

To this, Mohol replied, “During the last six months, a total of nine show cause notices have been issued to Air India in connection with five identified safety violations. Enforcement action has been completed in respect of one violation.” No further details were offered on the particulars of this violation.

The minister also stated that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is further investigating to ascertain the probable causes and the contributory factors that led to the crash of AI 171 in Ahmedabad,

Responding to another question by BJP’s Ashokrao Shankarrao Chavan, Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said the DGCA ordered the inspection of 33 787-Dreamliner planes in Air India’s fleet after the crash.

“Out of total 33 aircraft, 31 operational aircraft have been inspected wherein minor findings were observed in 8 aircraft. These aircraft have been released for operation post rectification. The remaining 2 aircraft are under scheduled maintenance,” said Naidu.