By Staff Correspondent
The Indian Civil Aviation ministry is set to increase the number of safety-related posts at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to enhance its safety oversight function.
On October 14, Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi highlighted an incident of smoke inside the cabin of an aircraft and sought necessary action to ensure that the airlines maintain the highest safety standards in a letter to the Civil Aviation Minister.
An emergency landing in Hyderabad was conducted on October 12 as Spicejet’s Bombardier Q400 aircraft operating its flight to Hyderabad from Goa witnessed smoke filling up in its cabin.
In response to the Rajya Sabha member’s letter, the minister said, “The observations made by DGCA were communicated immediately to SpiceJet for rectification. DGCA is keeping a close watch on the situation and shall take all appropriate action to avert any untoward incident.”
However, the letter written by the Minister also noted that “The Ministry and DGCA place the highest importance on the safety of air operations and have taken several proactive measures to enhance the safety of air operations and minimise air occurrences.”
In his letter, the minister said, “You would appreciate that the surveillance inspections as per the annual surveillance plan for Spicejet have been increased to 47 in 2022-23 as against 33 in 2019-20. Further, 155 overall surveillance inspections were carried out on aircraft in 2019-20. In 2022-23, 202 surveillance inspections have been completed so far”.
