Latest news with #AMEs
Hindustan Times
7 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
DGCA raps airports over safety violations, gives deadline of 7 days
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Tuesday it has uncovered safety violations during surprise surveillance checks at major airports, ordering airlines and airport operators to implement corrective measures within seven days as part of a comprehensive safety review of the country's aviation sector launched after the deadly Air India crash in Ahmedabad. DGCA has called on airports to urgently fix their safety gaps after an inspection revealed several safety violations(ANI) The aviation regulator conducted intensive night and early morning surveillance operations at Delhi and Mumbai airports and found what officials described as systemic lapses across aircraft maintenance, ground operations, and airport infrastructure. The enhanced oversight, initiated through an order issued on June 19 — a week after the Air India crash that killed at least 271 people — represents one of the most comprehensive safety assessments of India's aviation ecosystem in recent years, with similar reviews planned for Hyderabad and Kolkata airports. The surveillance revealed critical maintenance-related violations that directly impact flight safety, the regulator said in a statement. 'At places, AMEs [aircraft maintenance engineers] were not attending to snag rectification; defect reports generated by the aircraft system were not found recorded in the technical logbook; several life vests were not properly secured beneath their designated seats,' the DGCA revealed. AMEs are part of companies that run engineering and maintenance services. Typically, they are part of the airline but can at times include contractors. The regulator did not identify any specific provider. During aircraft maintenance, inspectors discovered that prescribed work orders were not being followed. More seriously, unserviceable thrust reverser systems and Flap Slat Levers — devices used by pilots to extend or retract wing flaps and slats during takeoff and landing — were not properly locked as required by safety protocols. The DGCA found that aircraft maintenance engineers were not taking mandatory safety precautions as specified in Aircraft Maintenance Manuals, creating potential hazards during maintenance operations. Ground handling operations showed significant deficiencies, with essential equipment including baggage trolleys found in unserviceable condition. Line maintenance facilities were operating without proper tool control procedures, violating established safety protocols. At the airport infrastructure level, inspectors found faded runway centreline markings that could impair pilot navigation during critical takeoff and landing phases. Rapid exit taxiway green centre lights were not functioning unidirectionally, potentially creating confusion for pilots during ground operations. Concerningly, obstruction limitation data around airports had not been updated for three years despite numerous new constructions in airport vicinity areas. No surveys had been conducted to assess whether these structures posed collision risks to aircraft. Multiple vehicles operating in sensitive ramp areas lacked mandatory speed governors. The DGCA immediately withdrew these vehicles by cancelling their Airport Vehicle Permits and suspended the drivers' Airside Driving Permits. The checks also uncovered problems with pilot training infrastructure. Inspectors found a flight simulator that did not match its corresponding aircraft configuration, with software that had not been updated to current versions — issues that could compromise the effectiveness of pilot training programs. In a separate incident reported on Monday, an Air India aircraft scheduled to operate the Delhi-Kochi flight was grounded Saturday due to a missing Cabin Defect Log, taking off only after a new log was issued. The Cabin Defect Log is used to record technical issues found in aircraft cabin areas and is essential for regulatory compliance, allowing engineers to identify and address problems before takeoff. The safety violations had immediate operational consequences. One domestic flight was held up due to worn tires and was cleared for departure only after required maintenance was completed, demonstrating the direct impact of the surveillance on flight operations. A DGCA official confirmed that 'findings during the surveillance revealed multiple cases where reported defects re-appeared many times on aircraft, indicating ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action on repeated defects.' 'All the findings observed during the surveillance have been communicated to the operators for taking necessary corrective actions within seven days,' the DGCA stated, indicating the urgency with which the regulator is treating the identified violations. The safety review follows other recent enforcement actions, including the DGCA's order directing Air India to remove three officials from crew scheduling duties over 'systemic failures' in operational processes, though those violations were unrelated to the Ahmedabad crash. Officials confirmed that the review process will continue, with similar comprehensive assessments planned for other major airports including Hyderabad and Kolkata as part of the ongoing safety evaluation ordered on June 19.
Hindustan Times
11 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Airport inspections lift lid on safety gaps
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Tuesday it has uncovered safety violations during surprise surveillance checks at major airports, ordering airlines and airport operators to implement corrective measures within seven days as part of a comprehensive safety review of the country's aviation sector launched after the deadly Air India crash in Ahmedabad. The wreckage of the Air India aircraft which crashed during take-off in Ahmedabad being lifted. (REUTERS) The aviation regulator conducted intensive night and early morning surveillance operations at Delhi and Mumbai airports and found what officials described as systemic lapses across aircraft maintenance, ground operations, and airport infrastructure. The enhanced oversight, initiated through an order issued on June 19 — a week after the Air India crash that killed at least 271 people — represents one of the most comprehensive safety assessments of India's aviation ecosystem in recent years, with similar reviews planned for Hyderabad and Kolkata airports. The surveillance revealed critical maintenance-related violations that directly impact flight safety, the regulator said in a statement. 'At places, AMEs [aircraft maintenance engineers] were not attending to snag rectification; defect reports generated by the aircraft system were not found recorded in the technical logbook; several life vests were not properly secured beneath their designated seats,' the DGCA revealed. AMEs are part of companies that run engineering and maintenance services. Typically, they are part of the airline but can at times include contractors. The regulator did not identify any specific provider. During aircraft maintenance, inspectors discovered that prescribed work orders were not being followed. More seriously, unserviceable thrust reverser systems and Flap Slat Levers — devices used by pilots to extend or retract wing flaps and slats during takeoff and landing — were not properly locked as required by safety protocols. The DGCA found that aircraft maintenance engineers were not taking mandatory safety precautions as specified in Aircraft Maintenance Manuals, creating potential hazards during maintenance operations. Ground handling operations showed significant deficiencies, with essential equipment including baggage trolleys found in unserviceable condition. Line maintenance facilities were operating without proper tool control procedures, violating established safety protocols. At the airport infrastructure level, inspectors found faded runway centreline markings that could impair pilot navigation during critical takeoff and landing phases. Rapid exit taxiway green centre lights were not functioning unidirectionally, potentially creating confusion for pilots during ground operations. Concerningly, obstruction limitation data around airports had not been updated for three years despite numerous new constructions in airport vicinity areas. No surveys had been conducted to assess whether these structures posed collision risks to aircraft. Multiple vehicles operating in sensitive ramp areas lacked mandatory speed governors. The DGCA immediately withdrew these vehicles by cancelling their Airport Vehicle Permits and suspended the drivers' Airside Driving Permits. The checks also uncovered problems with pilot training infrastructure. Inspectors found a flight simulator that did not match its corresponding aircraft configuration, with software that had not been updated to current versions — issues that could compromise the effectiveness of pilot training programs. In a separate incident reported on Monday, an Air India aircraft scheduled to operate the Delhi-Kochi flight was grounded Saturday due to a missing Cabin Defect Log, taking off only after a new log was issued. The Cabin Defect Log is used to record technical issues found in aircraft cabin areas and is essential for regulatory compliance, allowing engineers to identify and address problems before takeoff. The safety violations had immediate operational consequences. One domestic flight was held up due to worn tires and was cleared for departure only after required maintenance was completed, demonstrating the direct impact of the surveillance on flight operations. A DGCA official confirmed that 'findings during the surveillance revealed multiple cases where reported defects re-appeared many times on aircraft, indicating ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action on repeated defects.' 'All the findings observed during the surveillance have been communicated to the operators for taking necessary corrective actions within seven days,' the DGCA stated, indicating the urgency with which the regulator is treating the identified violations. The safety review follows other recent enforcement actions, including the DGCA's order directing Air India to remove three officials from crew scheduling duties over 'systemic failures' in operational processes, though those violations were unrelated to the Ahmedabad crash. Officials confirmed that the review process will continue, with similar comprehensive assessments planned for other major airports including Hyderabad and Kolkata as part of the ongoing safety evaluation ordered on June 19.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Get to know key leaders at some of East Austin's historically minority churches
Amid the rapid gentrification of central East Austin, historically Black and Hispanic churches have proven to be some of the most resilient cultural institutions. Three century-old churches clustered off East 10th Street — two predominantly Black and another largely Hispanic — have hung on tight as the neighborhood around them continues to transform. But their congregations are shrinking as members age and increasingly depart for the suburbs. Now they are confronted with the question of how to survive as commuter parishes that have trouble appealing to their new neighbors who trend younger and whiter — and who are less likely to attend church. Most of the churches have already been displaced once, in the early 20th century when segregationist policies pushed non-white Austinites and institutions east of Interstate 35 from downtown. They've been there ever since, their leaders and longtime members determined to stick around. Here are some of their stories: Read first: In gentrified East Austin, these three historically minority churches are at a crossroads Ardtria Griffin grew up in the days of strict tradition. On Sundays in the late 1960s, the pastor, ministers, and choir of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church would march down the center aisle of the church to start the service. All would break into a hymn, seemingly always the same one: 'Holy Holy Hooooly, Lord God Almighty…' 'I used to think the AMEs were sanctified or snobbish. We didn't clap. We didn't stomp our feet,' said the 64-year-old, in reference to two common African American church practices. 'Now we're letting our hair down.' These days, she reflects more on the dedication to faith and community that she saw in her parents and those before her. As a girl, she watched her father walk past East 11th Street's 'pimps and prostitutes' to invite homeless individuals to service. She remembers her mother organizing meals for hundreds in the church's basement on Thanksgiving. Her faith and loyalty to her church, she said, are in large part the effect of her parents. 'We had committed, dedicated members,' Griffin said. Now, it's her job to be that: 'bringing in the younger generation and training them up.' It's a role Griffin is trying to take on, picking up family members to bring them to Sunday service, and greeting oldcomers and newcomers alike as the lead usher. When it's someone's time to stop by the church, she'll be there to support them, 'In any way. In any way that I possibly can.' Mario Rentería awakes every morning at 5 a.m. and walks out to his backyard in East Austin, where he meditates and prays in front of a simple brick grotto of the Virgin Mary adorned by flowers. Behind him, through an alleyway, the wooden steeple of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church gazes down at him as it has for most of his life. The son of Mexican immigrants who married at the church, Rentería became an altar boy for the 6:30 a.m. mass at age 6. Now 73, he serves as a deacon, visiting the sick, assisting with paperwork and running an occasional mass. 'It was ingrained in us by my parents, by my community. As I grew up around here, I realized that that was the center of community life,' Rentería said. 'It still is the center of my being.' Rentería was born in a now-demolished one-room house across the street from the church and grew up two blocks away in a stone house that was rumored to have been a mortuary for Confederate veterans interred at the nearby Texas State Cemetery. As a boy, Rentería and his siblings spent hours fighting the soldiers' ghosts. On hot summer days, they ran behind the insecticide truck, inhaling its fumes and the dust stirred up from the then-unpaved roads. He moved back to the neighborhood three years ago, thanks to the help of a nonprofit developer. Nowadays, Rentería can walk down the street to check on old friends and fellow parishioners, like the Guajardo brothers, ages 71 and 74. Sometimes, as he walks through the transformed streets, he finds himself saddened by the disappearance of kids and families from the neighborhood. 'It's kind of weird that we're still here,' he said. But mostly, Rentería is happy that he can be near the church, repaying his labor to the institution that has kept him grounded in his faith, helping him make sense of family, change and mortality. It's what seems most logical, he said: 'To continue my service to the community, and more important, my service to God in any way I could.' In her defense of generations-old hymns and 'biblically sound sermons,' Ebenezer Third Baptist associate minister Janice Bryant mirrors her church's admiration for the depths of tradition. But Bryant also reflects Ebenezer's commitment to change. In 2003, nearly four decades after joining the church at the age of 26, she became ordained as a minister, a rarity in the Baptist tradition where church leaders are almost exclusively men. Now 75, Bryant said the accomplishment speaks to the forward-looking nature of the church's storied former pastor Marvin C. Griffin and of the congregation. It also speaks to her determination. Eight years later, she completed her doctorate in ministry. An educator by profession, Bryant took to helping, then leading, Bible studies at Ebenezer from her first years with the church. 'There's never been a time in my life at Ebenezer, except for maybe the first years, that I've actually not taught,' Bryant said. Learning one's faith should be transformational, Bryant said. It's what she tries to teach. It's what she tries to hold herself to. 'People think church is just a hobby, that it's just a game,' Bryant said. Or they see 'religion as something extremely stifling.' 'They say 'Peace on earth, goodwill towards men,'' Bryant said. So it's important 'that you actually have goodwill towards people … that you believe that you are responsible in some way, by your attitudes and feelings, to care — and not just know — about the things going on.' Such, she said, is what one's faith should do. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Get to know key leaders at East Austin's Black and Hispanic churches
