DGCA removes three Air India officials over crew scheduling lapses after fatal crash

The DGCA has removed three Air India officials from crew scheduling duties after repeated violations came to light. The directive follows a deadly Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad and raises concerns over compliance failures within the airline’s operations team.

Mumbai: Aviation safety watchdog DGCA has ordered Tata Group-owned Air India to remove its three officials, including a divisional vice president, from all roles and responsibilities related to crew scheduling and rostering over serious lapses.

In its order of June 20, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also directed the airline to initiate proceedings against these three officials without delay.

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Air India in a statement said it has acknowledged the regulator’s directive and implemented the order.

“In the interim, the company’s Chief Operations Officer will provide direct oversight to the Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC). Air India is committed to ensuring that there is total adherence to safety protocols and standard practices,” the airline said in its statement on Saturday.

The DGCA order said: “Repeated and serious violations voluntarily disclosed by Air India concerning flight crew being scheduled and operated despite lapses in licensing, rest, and recency requirements.

“These violations were discovered during the post-transition review from ARMS to the CAE Flight and Crew Management System.” ARMS (Air Route Management System) is the software platform used by the airline for various operational and management tasks, including crew rostering and flight planning, among others.

The voluntary disclosures, “while noted, point to systemic failures in crew scheduling, compliance monitoring, and internal accountability,” the DGCA order said and flagged that “particular concern is the absence of strict disciplinary measures against key officials directly responsible for these operational lapses”.

The regulator noted that these officials have been involved in “serious and repeated lapses including “unauthorised and non-compliant crew pairings, violation of mandatory licensing and recency norms and systemic failures in scheduling protocol and oversight”.

The DGCA also warned Air India that future violations in crew scheduling will invite “strict action”, including licence suspension and operational restrictions.

The latest direction from DGCA has come at a time when the airline has been under strict scrutiny in the aftermath of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash last week.

A London-bound Air India flight, AI-171 carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12. All but one on board the plane died along with nearly 29 on the ground when the aircraft smashed into a medical complex shortly after take-off.