4 Delhi-Leh flights under DGCA probe for safety violations

NEW DELHI:The offloading of three passengers to accommodate as many VVIPs is not the only controversy surrounding Leh flights. While the offloading-for VVIPs episode happened on June 24, as many as four flights operated from Delhi to Leh two days later are now under the scanner of the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) for allegedly serious safety violations.

“Two airlines operated two flights each with 577 passengers in all on those four aircraft flights from Delhi to Leh on June 26. A third airline also flew from Delhi to Leh same day and same time but chose to return to Delhi as the weather was very bad in Leh with dense cloud cover and heavy rains. However, the other two airlines who landed their Airbus A319s and A-320s in Leh prima facie endangered the lives of their passengers,“ said a DGCA official.

After getting a complaint, the regulator called for the records of all the three airlines that fly to Leh -Air India, Jet Airways and GoAir. “We have found serious discrepancies in the standard operating procedures of two airlines in operating to the difficult airfield that high altitude Leh is. We have asked all the three airlines to have a common SOP for Leh,“ said the official.

However, the regulator is unlikely to take any harsh action against the two airlines as that could affect connectivity to Leh.