Recently, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) started a special 2-month-long audit of the airline carriers in India. The DGCA was spurred into action after an increase in mid-air snags caused due to several reasons.
Some of these are insufficient trained man-power for aircraft maintenance who check, rectify, verify and certify the airplanes before take-off and allowing a plane to fly with “minimum equipment list” i.e., permitting a plane to fly provided that a non-critical malfunctioning or not-working component will be repaired or replaced within a certain time frame.
The DGCA will also look into hangars, stores, number of airplanes grounded, lack of spares etc. Considering the fierce competition amongst the airlines, the DGCA could examine the angle of sabotage and foul play, if any.
The steps initiated by the DGCA were long over-due and need to be a continuing affair and not a knee-jerk reaction to some recent incidents.
Once the audit is over the DGCA should fix accountability, allot a time-frame for the airlines to find remedial measures and publish an action taken report.
