The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday imposed a fine of Rs 80 lakh on Air India Limited. The fine has been imposed for violation of regulations pertaining to Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) and fatigue management system (FMS) of flight crew.
The decision came after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducted a spot audit of Air India in January, during which evidence was collected and fleet-wise random reports were analysed. "The analysis of reports and evidence revealed that Air India Limited operated flight(s) with both flight crew aged above 60 years flying together in a few instances.
"... the operator was also found deficient in providing adequate weekly rest, adequate rest before & after ultra-long range flights and adequate rest on layover to the flight crew, which violates the extant provisions of the Civil Aviation Requirements pertaining to FDTL," the regulator said in a release. Further, the DGCA said there were instances of exceeding duty periods, wrongly marked training records and overlapping duties.
On March 1, the regulator issued a show cause notice to Air India with respect to the violations. "The operator submitted its response to the show cause notice, which was not found satisfactory. Pursuant to the non-satisfactory response submitted by the operator, a fine of Rs 80,00,000 has been imposed on the operator," the release said.
This is not the first time that the airlines have been fined. Earlier in March, the civil aviator had imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India after an incident of non-availability of a wheelchair to an 80-year-old passenger who collapsed and died after walking from the aircraft to the airport terminal at Mumbai.
Earlier on February 20, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sent a notice to the DGCA over the death of the air passenger. According to the media reports, the US-based Indian-origin man collapsed after walking for about 1.5 km on the way to the immigration area. He was walking alongside his wife, who was in a wheelchair.
(With inputs from agencies)
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