The Indian Aviation Regulator found 51 security lapses in Air India in its July audit, including the lack of adequate training for some pilots, the use of unmppressed simulators and a poor list system, according to a government report seen by Reuters.
The annual audit was not related to the deadly shock of Boeing 787 last month that killed 260 people in Ahmedabad, but their findings occur when the airline faces renewed scrutiny after the accident.
The airline owned by the Tata Group already faces warning warnings to execute airplanes without verifying the emergency equipment, not changing the motor parts in time and forging records, along with other lapses related to the management of crew fatigue.
The 11 -page confidential audit report of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) pointed out seven significant infractions of “Level I” that must be set before July 30, and another 44 classified breaches that must be resolved before August 23.
The authorities said they found “recurrent training gaps” for some Boeing 787 and 777 unpalified pilots, saying that they had not completed their monitoring tasks, where they do not fly, but observe the operation of the instruments in the cabin, before the mandatory periodic evaluations.
The Air India fleet includes 34 Boeing 787 and 23 Boeing 777s, according to Flightradar24 website.
By marking the operational and security risks, the officials wrote in their report that Air India did not carry out “appropriate route evaluations” for some so -called category C airports, which may have designs or challenging land, and did training for such air fields with simulators that did not meet the qualification standards.
“This can explain the non -consideration of security risks during approaches to challenging airports,” said the DGCA audit report.
In a statement to ReutersAir India said it was “completely transparent” during the audit. He added that “it will send our response to the regulator within the stipulated time frame, together with the details of the corrective actions.”
A preliminary report on the June accident discovered that the fuel control switches turned almost simultaneously after takeoff and there was pilot confusion in the cabin. One pilot asked the other why he cut the fuel and the other replied that he had not done so, according to the report.
The DGCA has often marked concerns about Air India pilots who fail to comply with the limits of their flight service periods, and the audit report said that a AI-787 Milan-New Delhi flight exceeded the limit in 2 hours and 18 minutes, qualifying it as breach of “Level I”.
The audit was made by 10 DGCA inspectors and included four other auditors.
He also criticized the airline list system, which said “does not give a hard alert” if a minimum number of crew members on a flight would not be deployed, and added that at least four international flights had flown with an insufficient cabin crew.
Tata acquired Air India of the Government in 2022. While he has aggressively expanded his international network, he faces persistent complaints of passengers, which often resort to social networks to show dirty seats, broken places, non -operational entertainment systems and dirty cabin areas.
Reuters Last week, he reported that the senior executives of Air India, including the director of flight operations of the airline and its training director, received notices on July 23 that mark 29 “systemic” failures, stopping the airline for ignoring the warnings “repeated”. Air India has said that he will respond to the regulator.
The audit report said that the “doors and equipment control controls” showed inconsistency with the procedures and there were gaps in the training documentation. In addition, he said no main pilots for the Airbus A320 and A350 fleet.
“This results in a lack of responsibility and effective monitoring of flight operations for these types of aircraft,” the report said.
Last year, the authorities warned or fined the airlines in 23 cases for security violations, with 11 involving the Air India group. The largest fine was $ 127,000 in Air India for “insufficient oxygen on board” during some international flights.
