Over 50 safety lapses found at Air India by the country's aviation watchdog
A total of 263 safety-related lapses have been identified across the country's airlines, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Wednesday.
Twenty three were found at the largest carrier IndiGo, while 51 were found at the second largest Air India, the DGCA said, cautioning that higher number of findings are normal for airlines with bigger fleet sizes.
Lack of adequate training for some pilots, the use of unapproved simulators and a poor rostering system, were some of the failures highlighted at Air India.
The audit was conducted as part of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements and was not related to the deadly Boeing 787 crash last month that killed 260 people in Ahmedabad.
A preliminary report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released earlier this month into the crash suggested the fuel switches were turned off just after takeoff, starving the engines of fuel.
The plane is believed to have lost thrust and crashed around 30 seconds later, killing 241 on board and another 19 people on the ground. 52 Britons died in the crash. It remains unclear why the switches were moved.
In the cockpit, one pilot was heard asking the other, 'Why did you do the cut-off?' The other responded that he had not. The report does not identify which pilot said what.
Families of the victims have spoken of their anguish following the release of the preliminary report, as they demanded 'action should be taken against those responsible for the incident'.
Ayushi Christian, whose husband Lawrence Christian died in the crash, told the BBC: 'It has been one month since the crash, but no action has been taken by the government so far.'
The DGCA said it had also found 14 deficiencies at SpiceJet and 17 at Vistara, which is now part of Air India.
The regulator found 25 lapses at Air India Express, Air India's budget carrier. Akasa Air is yet to be audited.
It did not detail what kind of lapses were found but divided the list of breaches into "Level I", which are significant breaches, and "Level II", which are other non-compliances.
In total, 19 "Level I" breaches were found at Indian airlines, the DGCA said.
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