Scindia holds meetings with airline CEOs to ramp up safety oversight

Worried about the recent spate of technical glitches that have led to flight disruptions and emergency landings, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday met with the top executives of three major carriers individually and asked them to strengthen safety protocols, ministry officials said.

Two international flights by Indian carriers were on Sunday diverted to a third country over technical snags in the latest of these incidents. The aviation regulator last week pulled up budget carrier SpiceJet, which has recorded six such instances in the past month and a half. Other airlines such as IndiGo, the largest by number of flights, also reported two technical glitches from July 14 to July 17.

“The CEO of each airline was called in for 30 minutes for a meeting with the minister separately,” an aviation ministry official said, requesting anonymity. Scindia told the CEOs to take all necessary measures to ramp up safety oversight, the official added.

Officers of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the civil aviation ministry were present in the meetings.

Three major airline chiefs were met with on Monday and the next batch of meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, a second official said without naming the airline firms.

Officials from the minister’s office did not disclose which airlines were present at the meeting.

Scindia chaired a detailed two-hour long meeting on Sunday as well , with ministry and DGCA officials, to review the recent incidents.

In the Sunday meeting, the minister issued directions with regard to tightening safety oversight by the aviation regulator. Passenger safety is paramount and there will be no compromise with regard to safety, reliability of airline operations and alignment with the strictest international safety norms, the minister said.

“In the wake of numerous safety issues pertaining to aviation, HMCA Sh @JM_Scindia had a high-level meeting with the senior officials of MoCA & @DGCAIndia. He re-emphasized to strictly adhere to the prescribed safety norms and avoid any kind of laxity towards passenger safety,” the civil aviation ministry tweeted on Sunday.

There have been multiple technical malfunctions in aircraft operated by Indian carrier in the past month.

On Sunday, an IndiGo airlines flight from Sharjah to Hyderabad was diverted to Karachi in Pakistan for a precautionary landing. An Air India Express flight from Calicut to Dubai, too, was diverted to Muscat early on Sunday after the crew detected a burning smell from one of vents inside the cabin.

In both the cases, passengers reached their destinations later on Sunday.

SpiceJet, which reported at least six mid-air and on-ground incidents between May 1 and July 5, has been under the regulatory scanner. The regulator earlier this month sent a notice to the carrier, saying it had “failed” to establish safe, efficient and reliable air services. It gave SpiceJet three weeks to respond.

In an interview to PTI on July 6, SpiceJet chief Ajay Singh had said the company will be “doubly careful” and strengthen inspection of aircraft before the operation of their flights.

“All vendors that are relevant to anything related to safety or spare parts are always paid or settlements are reached with them. There is no failure here.” Singh had said.

An airline spokesperson had said earlier this month: “We are an IATA-IOSA certified airline. SpiceJet successfully completed the meticulous audit program for recertification in October 2021. We have been regularly audited by DGCA. All our aircraft were audited a month ago by the regulator and found to be safe. All flights of SpiceJet are conducted in compliance with the applicable regulations of the DGCA Civil Aviation Regulations on the subject.”