Amid mounting safety concerns and the cancellation of at least 66 flights that were to be operated with Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, DGCA officials held a detailed review meeting with top Air India and Air India Express executives.
Air India's ill-fated Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed soon after take off from Ahmedabad airport on June 12 underwent comprehensive maintenance checks in June 2023 and was due for the next scheduled comprehensive checks in December this year, according to airline officials.
A snag-hit helicopter being towed to Gauchar for repairs by an MI-17 chopper of the Indian Air Force crashed in the hills near Kedarnath on Saturday morning.
Under the civil aviation ministry, AAIB is responsible for the classification of safety occurrences, involving aircraft operating in the Indian airspace into accidents and serious incidents.
Authorities will conduct a survey of the areas surrounding the Ahmedabad airport, in the wake of last week's Air India plane crash that claimed 270 lives, to check whether any structures were violating height norms and posing a threat to aircraft safety, an official said on Thursday.
Aviation is a juicy target. It's a 24x7 industry, which cannot afford delays or loss of customer credibility.
An Air India plane from Kochi veered off the runway at the Mumbai airport on Monday morning, and the aircraft has been grounded for checks.
The DGCA has issued multiple fines and warnings to Air India over the past three years, flagging serious concerns in flight operations, cockpit discipline, and internal accountability.
An Air India flight bound for Indore made an emergency landing in Delhi after a fire indication in one of its engines. All passengers are safe and being transferred to another aircraft.
'Visualise those 15 to 18 seconds: Fully loaded aircraft, pilot manually controlling with both hands (no autopilot immediately after takeoff), looking forward while switches are behind.'
Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar told PTI that the accident took place above the forests of Gaurikund amid poor visibility due to bad weather.
The lawsuit has compensatory and punitive damages against the defendants for the wrongful deaths of four passengers on flight 171, US-based law firm The Lanier Law Firm said in a statement.
Pilot groups have accused the AAIB of portraying the pilots as responsible for the incident, with vague and selective presentation of cockpit conversations.
After chairing an emergency meeting with senior officials to discuss the situation, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that heli services on the Char Dham route will remain suspended for two days, as the weather is bad and the safety of the passengers is the government's top priority.
A timeline of events related to the investigation of the Air India Boeing 787 crash in Ahmedabad, including investigation initiation, black box recovery, and safety measures taken.
A Bangkok-bound Air India flight from Mumbai was held back for over five hours on June 25, after some hay was found stuck in one of the aircraft's wings, the airline has said.
Aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation has revised its operational guidelines for operators during adverse weather conditions, emphasising that safety should take precedence over 'schedule adherence' and encouraged pilots to divert flights in unpredictable conditions.
'The crash site must be secured because something small -- like a pipe or hydraulic line -- could hold a critical clue.'
The US federal agency, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), responsible for the investigation of aviation accidents and significant transportation events in the country, on Friday (local time) issued a strong rebuke of recent media coverage made over the preliminary investigative report on the aftermath of the ill-fated Air India 171 crash that claimed 260 lives in Gujarat's Ahmedabad last month.
Delhi is preparing for its first artificial rain through cloud seeding to combat air pollution. A trial run was successful, and the first rainfall is expected on October 29 if weather conditions are favorable.
Sources in the government said the roof that collapsed at T1 was constructed during 2008-09 and that the work was contracted out by GMR to private contractors.
'In multi-pilot operations, no critical switch can be moved without the other pilot's consent.'
The DGCA has issued four showcause notices to Air India over repeated violations of cabin crew deployment, training lapses, rest regulations, and operational oversight that compromise flight safety.
It added that as per international protocols under the International Civil Aviation Organisation, all information on the investigation will be provided by the government of India.
'Earlier, the NTSB was actively flagging technical issues with Boeing. But now, the narrative is shifting toward 'human error'.' 'That term is often misunderstood -- it could mean pilots, engineers, refueling staff -- anyone.' 'But this framing ('human error') conveniently steers the conversation away from mechanical or design faults.'
On July 25 and 26, the regulator's team carried out the surveillance of Air India in the areas of internal audit, accident prevention work and availability of required technical manpower.
'AAIB preliminary report was more detailed than most people were expecting.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the Navi Mumbai International Airport and a portion of the Mumbai Metro Line, marking significant improvements to transportation infrastructure in Mumbai.
Aviation regulator DGCA has issued four show cause notices to Air India for various violations related to cabin crew rest and duty norms, cabin crew training rules and operational procedures, a month after the airline made certain voluntary disclosures to the watchdog.
India's scores in the ICAO's air safety oversight audit will improve substantially as the international watchdog's just-concluded validation mission was highly successful as per the initial reports, regulator DGCA said on Wednesday. ICAO is the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach, an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) was undertaken from November 9 to 16.
Air India reiterated that its priority remains extending assistance to the families.
Soon after the crash on Sunday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held an emergency meeting and asked senior officials to prepare a strict SOP (standard operating procedure) for heli services in the state, making a thorough check of the technical condition of the choppers mandatory.
'...rectification has to happen then and there, and that takes additional time.'
'If anything happened out of the normal, there would be instantaneous ECAM, EICAS warnings, the master caution or master warnings going off.' 'It would be like a Christmas tree in the cockpit if things start going wrong.'
Names and names and names and names... 329 in all. Some Indian. Some Canadian. Some British. Berry. Gupta. Jain. James. Bhatt. Beauchesne. Chatlani. Enayati. Lougheed.... Vaihayasi Pande Daniel visits Ahakista, Ireland, home to the memorial for the worst terrorist atrocity in India's history.
The ministry of civil aviation clarified that, contrary to circulating reports, a video recorder that had been recovered at the crash site was not the DFDR.
The DGCA has asked airlines to inspect the fuel switch locking system in their Boeing 787 and 737 planes after a preliminary probe report into the Air India crash found that the switches were cut off before the accident.
'When there are glaring errors in the report, how can you trust anything in it?'
The Indian Air Force is set to retire its fleet of MiG-21 fighter jets at a decommissioning event in Chandigarh. The event will mark the end of an era for the aircraft that has been a key part of the IAF's combat fleet for over six decades.
'The AAIB will collect every single retrievable piece of the aircraft and transport it to a secure location -- usually a large hangar capable of housing a Boeing 787.' 'The entire aircraft will be laid out, each part marked and tagged, and practically rebuilt like a jigsaw puzzle.'
