While a high-level investigation into the AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad is still underway, former Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Sanat Kaul, stated on Friday that the civil aviation regulator had repeatedly flagged safety issues with Air India through several letters, highlighting improper inspections and other lapses.
Kaul hinted that the tragedy, which claimed the lives of all 241 people on board, may have been partly caused by lapses from Air India staff responsible for safety checks or by inadequate enforcement of regulatory inspections and audits by aviation authorities.
According to a media report, “The DGCA had written to Air India several times, pointing out multiple issues, mainly regarding safety, things like improper inspections and other lapses. So, the question now arises about the maintenance procedures followed by Air India,” Kaul told IANS.
The former bureaucrat said, “There’s also concern about what’s called ‘line maintenance’, the checks conducted by inspectors before every flight. How thorough and effective those checks were – is now under scrutiny…”
In the aviation industry, line maintenance refers to the routine maintenance and repair tasks performed on an aircraft between flights or during short layovers, typically on the airport tarmac.
Kaul said that matters related to civil aviation safety are handled by the regulator, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which functions under the Ministry but operates independently.
There is a robust and well-defined regulatory framework in the country; however, the question is “how well it is being implemented in practice”, he said.
“In such a vast system, if there were any lapses, which airline, which area, that will be investigated now,” he said.
Kaul’s comments about the possible reasons behind the crash come at a time when experts from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and American aeroplane manufacturer Boeing, and Britain have initiated an investigation into the tragedy.
The focus of investigators is going to be on decoding data from the aircraft’s Black Box to narrow down the reason for the suspected engine failure just before the crash.
The crash — reportedly the first aviation disaster in a decade involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner — occurred when the London-bound flight reached an altitude of 625 feet before losing contact with the flight tracking system. Moments before the aircraft began its steep descent at a vertical speed of 475 feet per minute and crashed, the pilots had issued a Mayday (distress) call to Ahmedabad airport’s air traffic control (ATC).
