On July 19, 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 takeoff 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 needs to examine substance abuse by airline staff and considering the fierce competition amongst the airlines the angle of sabotage and foul play could also be looked into. The flying start initiated by the DGCA was long over-due and needs to be a continuing affair and not a knee-jerk reaction to some recent incidents. After the audit, the DGCA should fix accountability, allot a time-frame for the airlines to find remedial measures and publish an action taken report.
