Tata Group-owned Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Saturday apologised for a flyer urinating on a fellow female passenger on a flight from New York in November, and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the airline is reviewing policy of serving alcohol on flights.
Airbus recently bagged large orders from Indian airlines such as Indigo and Go Air.
However, if a flyer has been allotted the middle seat due to a high passenger load, 'then additional protective equipment like wrap-around gown of the Ministry of Textile approved standards' must be provided to him or her in addition to a three-layered face mask and face shield, a DGCA order, accessed by PTI, said.
"When the A320 plane, which did not have any passengers as it was heading to Moscow to bring back stranded Indians under Vande Bharat Mission, had reached Uzbekistan's airspace, our team on ground realised that one of the pilots had tested COVID-positive," senior Air India officials said.
This is at least the ninth incident of technical malfunction on a SpiceJet aircraft in the last 40 days.
The recent spate of technical glitches in aircraft has prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue an order on July 18, making aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) with category B1/B2 licences the final authorities in certifying planes. This has put the spotlight on the availability of such personnel. According to the order, airlines were resorting to frequent one-off authorisation by the Category A certifying staff at transit stations, which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions.
An unprecedented decision to form a ministerial-level committee was driven by fears of witch-hunt by investigating agencies.
The assurance to pilots came after a meeting between the two sides at the airline's headquarters in Mumbai on Wednesday, airline sources told PTI on Tuesday evening.
The DGCA cracked the whip after an IndiGo flight bound for Lucknow returned to Ahmedabad within 40 minutes of its getting airborne due to a mid-air engine failure.
"We are relocating these crocodiles just for the safety of tourists. There is no specific instruction to us about any seaplane service" an official said.
Jet Airways is in discussions with aircraft manufacturers and lessors to lease 6-8 planes, including some of those which were to be delivered to Russian carriers prior to the Ukraine war, as it gets ready for the relaunch, according to sources. Moreover, the airline is also negotiating with airport operators to secure slots with "good" timings, they said. Once a major player in the Indian aviation space, the carrier has not flown since April 17, 2019 and is being revived under the ownership of the Jalan-Kalrock consortium.
Beleaguered no-frills carrier SpiceJet on Monday approached the government for financial aid.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said that there was no question of any bail out to the beleaguered carrier
The orders issued last Friday signed by an assistant general manager of the in-flight services, however, did not assign any reason for the suspension, sources said on Friday.
With full-service carrier Jet Airways and budget airline SpiceJet operating 737 MAX planes, the DGCA has decided to seek information about the aircraft from Boeing as well as the two domestic carriers in view of the air crash in Ethiopia.
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The decision of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation comes at a time when the UN-body International Civil Aviation Organisation is working on global market-based measures to check aviation emissions.
In a move which could affect the Jet-Etihad deal or start-up carriers like Tata-SIA or AirAsia India, DGCA has made it clear that foreign airlines or investors would not have the right to control the management of an Indian carrier.
Air India and IndiGo have already suspended Kamra from flying until further notice and six months, respectively.
If that happens, Jet Airways will be the first bankrupt airline which will be revived under the Insolvency process.
'Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is conducting investigations,' Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, as fresh questions were raised on the safety parameters of the runway.
The Gurugram-based company had acquired Lucknow-based drone manufacturer and consultant start-up TechEagle in December, to expand food delivery using drones
The civil aviation ministry had last week suspended all flights between the European country and India from December 23 to December 31 as a mutated variant of the coronavirus was detected there.
'The DGCA, the ministry of civil aviation, Air India, the Airports Authority, all of them together form what I call an organised syndicate' 'In India, it is a fashion to blame the pilot because then nobody asks questions about the incompetence and grave negligence of this State-run syndicate.'
Two Air India pilots have been suspended after they allowed a south Indian actress to sit inside the cockpit mid-air on a Bangalore-Hyderabad flight in flagrant violation of safety norms.
For the first time, the country's largest airline IndiGo will soon lease up to four wide-body Boeing 777 planes to cover the shortfall in its international operations, according to officials. The airline said the wet-leasing of "certain aircraft" will be done as an interim measure. IndiGo, which has so far only been operating narrow-body Airbus planes, ATRs and freighters, will now be having wide-body aircraft in its fleet.
Aviation regulator DGCA has found "human error" among others as the cause of an incident at the Bengaluru airport two years ago involving an Air India Dreamliner plane, in which the aircraft's fuselage panel had fallen off at runway during landing.
Over 30 passengers have suffered ear and nose-bleed after the crew on Jet Airways flight 9W 697 reportedly forgot to select a switch that helps maintain cabin air pressure
Dairies, milk plants, grocery shops, chemists and petrol pumps, ATMs, e-commerce services of essential items like food and medicines will remain open, he said.
Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo and AirAsia India ready to fill in the gap.
The first nationwide mock drill was held on January 2 which, the health ministry said, helped to iron out any glitches in the final execution and further refinement of the operational procedures.
In a historic move, the Army has selected two women officers to train as combat helicopter pilots for its aviation wing, officials said.
The airline has already grounded the four pilots and set up an internal probe into the incident, which took place about four years ago but was brought to the notice of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation only this week.
The airline now has a total of 1,120 pilots of whom 88 are foreign pilots.
India already allows 100 per cent ownership of greenfield pharma businesses.
The DGCA said, '(the) Crew initiated action only when the master cautions warning i.e after 15 seconds of autopilot disengage'.
A Delhi-bound SpiceJet plane hit a stray buffalo on the runway while rolling for take-off from Surat airport late Thursday night, providing anxious moments to the 146 people on board.
SpiceJet also plans to increase its daily flights to 251.
IndiGo barred a specially-abled child from boarding a flight as he was in "a state of panic"
Tata group-owned AirAsia India's inability to get approval for international flights is hurting UDAN, the Indian government's regional air connectivity project that also aims to link cities in Northeast India and Odisha to places abroad. Sources said the civil aviation ministry is waiting for the low-cost airline to come under the full ownership of Tata Sons and become part of Air India, the former state-owned carrier now owned by the private conglomerate, before allowing it to operate international flights. Tata owns 84 per cent stake in AirAsia India and it is understood that the group will complete the process of buying rest of the stake by July's end.
The precaution was made compulsory after a incident.
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