Commercial pilot licenses will now be valid for ten years, with the government amending rules as part of efforts to further improve ease of doing business in the aviation sector. Till now, the validity of Commercial Pilot License (CPL) was for five years and after completion of that period, it had to be renewed. The civil aviation ministry amended the Aircraft Rules, 1937.
Security at the Mumbai airport has been tightened following intelligence inputs suggesting that terrorists were planning to carry out a hijacking attempt for securing the release of some terrorists.An alert has been issued following a meeting of senior officials of Civil Aviation Ministry, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Home Ministry, Civil Aviation Ministry sources said on Thursday.During the meeting, preparedness of 'different layers' were discussed.
Being touted as a competitor to the country's busiest Delhi airport -- which handles approximately 1,200 flights a day -- the Noida airport was expected to start flight operations by the end of this year. But supply-chain disruption, caused by pandemic and subsequent global upheaval, has hit the pace of construction at the airport which is coming up in the Jewar area of UP's Gautam Budh Nagar, some 75-km from the Delhi airport.
This incident was also not reported to the DGCA, for which the regulator pulled up the full-service carrier, stating its conduct was unprofessional and issued show cause notices to the airline, its director of flight safety and the crew that operated the New York-Delhi flight, asking them to explain within two weeks why action should not be taken against them.
'We are going to have plane crashes left, right and centre.'
Arun Mishra takes over as Director General of Civil Aviation at a time when questions are being raised on its leniency with airlines. Being also grossly understaffed, it faces an International Civil Aviation Organisation safety audit this December. The new DG talks about these and other issues.
A Kingfisher pilot, who had allegedly flew a woman in cockpit in violation of safety rules from Delhi to Mumbai on Sunday last, has been taken off the duty pending a probe by the airline.
He was grounded by the airline on Sunday after he tested positive for alcohol in two breath analyser (BA) tests before he was to operate Air India's New Delhi-London flight.
Three Indian carriers -- SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express -- have Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleets.
About 350 Boeing 737 Max 8 are currently in service with airlines around the world, with thousands more on order. Boeing insists it has no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies.
In a circular, the DGCA said, "Crew should be well aware of the aircraft limitations and of takeoff/landing performance calculations during the adverse weather operations." The regulator also said that the airlines must "make available sufficiently experienced crew in the cockpit".
The decision has been taken after Kamra was found 'guilty' for alleged misbehaviour by an internal committee of IndiGo, an airline official said. The ban on Kamra comes into effect immediately.
The intellectual vacuum that the government is often accused of is more than evident in the policy draft.
So far, carcasses of 32 flamingos have been recovered from Ghatkopar area, the police said.
An Air India pilots' grouping has raised fatigue concerns in the wake of flight crew rosters generated using a new rostering tool, saying that extended waiting periods between duty time will jeopardise crew alertness and performance. "Extended waiting periods, occurring before active flight duties, run counter to enhancing crew readiness and, in fact, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue over time," the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has said. In a letter to Air India head of safety Henry Donohoe last week, IPG said it has been recently observed that the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency and economic gains has led to an unintended overshadowing of the primary intent behind Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations.
Increasing cases of aviators in India complaining of fatigue and in some cases leading to death have spurred the DGCA to bring in draft rules to reduce stress.
An A320neo plane of Tata Group-run Air India returned to the Mumbai airport just 27 minutes after takeoff as one of its engines shut down midair due to a technical issue, sources said on Friday.
In a serious safety breach, Nagpur airport runway was intruded by a drove of pigs when President Pranab Mukherjee's jumbo Boeing 737 was taxiing towards the runway after landing on Monday, prompting the civil aviation ministry to seek a report.
Air India has ordered 470 aircraft to serve the Indian economy and is set to receive a new aircraft every six days over the next 18 months, CEO and MD Campbell Wilson said on Friday. He was speaking at the 67th Assembly of Presidents of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines here. "We have new aircraft, we are recruiting many, many new crew and staff, improving the training regime and there is more work to do and we are making good progress," he said.
Nearly 80 domestic and international flights received bomb threats in less than 24 hours that later turned out to be hoaxes, keeping thousands of passengers and security agencies on tenterhooks.
On Monday, the Boeing B737 Max aircraft with registration number VT-SZK operated the Mangaluru-Dubai flight, DGCA officials noted. After the aircraft landed, an engineer did a walk around inspection and found the nose wheel strut was compressed more than usual, they said.
In recent times, there have been various incidents of unruly passengers onboard domestic and international flights.
Kingfisher Airlines, which is already facing a safety audit by the country's civil aviation regulator DGCA, on Thursday came under fresh scrutiny following reports that one of its pilots flew a woman in the cockpit in violation of rules.
Kingfisher Airlines, which is already facing a safety audit by the country's civil aviation regulator DGCA, on Thursday came under fresh scrutiny following reports that one of its pilots flew a woman in the cockpit in violation of rules.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (which represents all EU countries) has also raised the red flag on the issue.
Bank chiefs have been quoted as saying that Kingfisher would need to arrange fresh equity of Rs 1,000-2,000 crore (Rs 10-20 billion) before seeking additional funds from the consortium of banks, led by the State Bank of India.
'The lay of the runway is not at all safe.' 'Even operating a 737 is dangerous there.' 'During the monsoon, they must ban landing on runway 10.'
The minister's remarks come against the backdrop of Surya, the ruling BJP's Bengaluru South MP, facing flak from Congress over the incident, which happened on December 10 last year at Chennai airport.
Playback singer Sonu Nigam on Friday lashed out the Jet Airways for suspending the crew members, who allowed him to perform impromptu on the aircraft's address system.
As SpiceJet faces heat from the aviation regulator DGCA for multiple flight incidents in the last few weeks, malfunction cases involving planes of IndiGo and Vistara came to light on Wednesday.
SpiceJet is the only Boeing 737 MAX operator in India, with 13 aircraft of the type in its fleet and a total of 205 planes on order.
A family of five, returning to their hometown at Koducalli in Kozhikode from Dubai, were aboard the fateful Air India Express flight that crash-landed at the Kozhikode airport claiming at least 18 lives on Friday.
Holding that Air India's conduct appeared to be 'unprofessional', aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday issued notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, asking why action should not be taken against them for 'dereliction' of duty while handling the November 26 'urination' incident.
Taking note of the incident, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel ordered a probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and appealed to VIPs not to pressurise pilots to operate flights.
According to the revised policy, guests should not be permitted to drink alcohol unless served by the cabin crew and that the cabin crew be attentive to identifying guests that might be consuming their own alcohol.
'DGCA cares a damn for human life.'
This is the third incident of technical malfunction on a Go First aircraft in two days.
The regulator is now planning to bring in other workers in the aviation ecosystem under the purview of the breath-analyser test. It will include air traffic control officers (ATCOs), ground-handling personnel, flight despatchers, aerodrome operation personnel and engineers.
This comes against the backdrop of rising concerns in various quarters about steep fluctuations in airfares.
DGCA's move seeks to ban perfumes for pilots as they have alcohol and can affect the results of breathanalyser tests. But the FAA and EASA have different standards, says senior journalist Shobha John.
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