Air India grounds operations director over low fuel issue in Sydney
Air India has temporarily taken away its director of operations Amitabh Singh from flying duties for his failure to report to the regulator DGCA a mid- air-fuel issue in Sydney last week, a source said Tuesday.
Singh, who was captaining a New Delhi-Sydney flight on September 7 failed to file the mandatory report on the low fuel situation to the DGCA, though he informed the airline.
The incident came under the scanner of both Indian and Australian aviation regulators.
"Air India has temporarily de-rostered Singh from flying duties as he did not file the mandatory online report about the low fuel situation on the said flight to the DGCA," a source told PTI.
Under the regulations, a pilot is required to compulsorily report certain incidents, including low fuel situation during a flight, to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Though Singh filed a voluntary report about the incident with the airline, he allegedly did not file it online with the DGCA within the stipulated 24 hours, airline source had said Monday.
"He has been derostered on the orders of the DGCA," the source added.
An Air India spokesperson was not available for comments.
Following the incident, the Australian aviation authorities had also asked Air India to probe the incident as he did not declare "fuel emergency" to the Sydney air traffic control while seeking priority landing and instead declared that there was minimum fuel.
"We are aware and it is being investigated," a senior DGCA official had told PTI Monday.
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