Ahmedabad, June 21: After the Ahmedabad accident, the DGCA on Saturday ordered Air India to remove 3 officers. These include divisional vice president Chuda Singh, chief manager Pinky Mittal, who handles crew scheduling, and Payal Arora, who is involved in crew scheduling planning.
This action was taken against the three officers for serious violations of aviation safety protocols. DGCA ordered Air India to remove them from roles related to crew scheduling and rostering with immediate effect.
On the other hand, Air India said in a statement that it has implemented the DGCA’s order. The company’s Chief Operations Officer will directly monitor the Integrated Operations Control Centre until further notice. According to news agency PTI, the order was given on June 20. It came to light today.
This decision was taken after the plane crash incident in Ahmedabad on June 12. Actually, Air India flight AI-171 going to London crashed soon after takeoff. The plane collided with the medical college hostel, killing a total of 270 people, including passengers.
Three charges against the three officers
- Crew pairing is going against the rules.
- Violating mandatory flying experience and licensing rules.
- Not following scheduling protocols.
DGCA also gave these instructions
- Air India should immediately remove these officers from all responsibilities related to crew scheduling and rostering. Inter-disciplinary action should be initiated against these officers immediately. Report to DGCA within 10 days.
- These officers should be transferred to non-operational posts until the corrective process is completed, and should not be allowed to work on any flight safety or crew compliance related posts.
- In future, if any violation of rules related to crew scheduling, licensing or flight timing is found, strict action will be taken. Which may include fines, license suspension or cancellation of operator permission.
Air India flights are being cancelled continuously for 10 days
Air India has 33 Boeing 787- 8/9 aircraft in its fleet. However, its flights are being cancelled continuously for the last 10 days. Between 12 and 17 June, Air India cancelled 69 flights including Boeing 787 flights. 3 flights were cancelled on 18 June and 4 flights were cancelled on 19 June.
Apart from this, on 19th June itself, Air India flight AI388 (Airbus A320 Neo aircraft) going to Vietnam was called back to Delhi mid-way. There were 130 passengers on board the flight. A technical fault was detected in the plane. A bird collided with the flight going from Delhi to Pune, due to which the return journey of the plane was cancelled.