Edited by Deepali Verma
Bharat’s aviation regulators have imposed hefty fines on three airline services and the Mumbai airport operator for not following standard operating procedures and security protocols on January 17.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) has to make a total payment of fine amounting to Rs 90 lakh, whereas IndiGo has to pay Rs 1.2 crore. Air India and SpiceJet have to pay amounting to Rs 30 lakh each.
The BCAS and DGCA have slapped a fine of Rs 60 lakh and Rs 30 lakh, respectively, on MIAL. The BCAS has further imposed a fine of Rs 1.2 crore on IndiGo over its failure to adhere to security measures regarding the incident where passengers were seen consuming food on the tarmac according to a video that went viral.
A fine of Rs 30 lakh each on Air India and SpiceJet was imposed by DGCA regarding the rostering of pilots during the onset of foggy conditions.
Several passengers exited out of an IndiGo aircraft at the Mumbai airport, sat on the tarmac, while some were also seen eating food there as soon as their diverted Goa-Delhi flight managed to land after what seemed like a long delay on January 14. The show-cause notices have further been issued by the aviation regulators to IndiGo and MIAL citing that they were not proactive in anticipating the situation and facilitating appropriate arrangements for passengers at the airport.
The DGCA’s order dated January 17, informed that the reply to a show-cause notice received was deemed unsatisfactory as the response submitted by MIAL shows its failure to adhere to the safety requirements as laid down in the “Air Safety Circular 04 of 2007”.
Glancing at the issue of rostering of pilots, the penalty imposed was over failure in complying with instructions issued as per minutes of meeting on low-visibility operations and fog preparedness held on November 6, 2023. Previously, the DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to the airlines for rostering “non-CAT III compliant pilots” during low visibility at the Delhi airport that led to several diversions of Delhi-bound flights.
Upon analysis of the flight delay/cancellation/diversion-related data which was submitted by the scheduled airlines for December 2023, DGCA was made aware that Air India and SpiceJet did not roster “CAT II/III and LVTO qualified pilots for some of the flights”, as voiced by an official.
CAT II/III pertains to the operation of flights in low-visibility conditions whereas LVTO refers to low visibility take-off.
The period from December 25-28 last year, the flight operations were largely impacted at the Delhi airport, and close to 60 flights of various airlines were diverted owing to dense fog.
