Aviation lapses: Air India plane flies 8 times without valid certificate; DGCA investigation underway

Air India had operated a 164-seater Airbus A320 on eight flights before an engineer finally detected a safety lapse and the aircraft was taken out of service.

The flight, operated betwen November 24 and 25 according to sources cited by ET, was not suitable for flying as its airworthiness licence had already expired. The operations posed potential risk to the safety of passengers and the and the airline has suspended all those responsible for releasing the aircraft without a valid licence. The plane will stay grounded while the DGCA inquiry is underway.

The case has surfaced at a time when the airline has been trying to reassure passengers about its safety record following the Dreamliner crash on June 12 that resulted in 260 fatalities.

What is the Certificate of Airworthiness?

The Certificate of Airworthiness is issued by the DGCA and renewed every year after confirming that mandatory periodic maintenance has been carried out and the aircraft is safe to fly. Operating an aircraft without valid documents is treated as a serious offence. A government official told ET that the Tata group owned Air India could face heavy penalties, and suspension of top officials is also a possibility.

The situation may create further complications for the carrier with its lessors, because flying with an expired licence can invalidate insurance. “By operating an aircraft which was not certified to be airworthy, the carrier has risked flight safety and (that of) all the passengers. This is a serious violation and not expected from a mainline carrier like Air India,” the official told ET.

While the regulator conducts periodic spot inspections, it is the operator’s responsibility to ensure that aircraft remain airworthy. Senior engineers noted that modern software systems make it very difficult to overlook scheduled tasks such as certificate renewal or maintenance. Air India has an in-house Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation (CAMO) that oversees the process.

“An airline typically starts the work of renewal of its certificates at least three months before the due date so it is renewed before time,” a DGCA inspector said. “After the end of daily operations, when the aircraft is parked for night halt, an engineer checks whether all documents and approvals are in line. That the plane flew eight times with an expired licence raises a lot of questions about Air India’s safety culture.”

The DGCA is expected to categorise the incident as a Level 1 violation, a critical lapse affecting flight safety. It is the latest in a series of operational issues at Air India. Earlier, show-cause notices were served to the airline’s senior management, including chief executive Campbell Wilson, after it was found that several aircraft had components that exceeded their approved life span. A few months before that, the regulator suspended the head of engineering quality, the department responsible for internal audits to check compliance.

The chain of issues illustrates the continuing struggle to restore the airline’s image almost four years after privatisation. To bolster engineering oversight, Air India is working with Singapore Airlines (SIA), which owns 25.1% of the carrier. Jeremy Yew, senior vice president of Singapore Airlines Engineering Services, has been deputed to Air India, and more SIA personnel are expected to join, a senior executive at the airline said.

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