AI sacks flight safety chief for negligence
DGCA probe into hard landing of an aircraft finds that he didn’t maintain critical flight monitoring data.
Air India on Friday removed its chief of flight safety Captain AS Soman (pictured) on orders of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which found that he had neglected to maintain critical flight monitoring data. The lapse was brought to the DGCA’s notice during an investigation of a hard landing at Hyderabad reported by an AI passenger.
On June 28, Wing Commander Venkataramana Mantha, a passenger on board Air India flight AI-513 from Bangalore to Hyderabad complained to the aviation regulator about a particularly jarring touchdown, which resulted in AI suspending an aircraft maintenance engineer.
Investigators held that Captain Soman, as the official responsible for flight safety, was culpable of negligence. Captain Soman assumed the role in January.
“The pilot had reported bad weather [in Hyderabad] but when we asked for the data it was found that none was available as the flight hadn’t maintained information about the flight,” a senior DGCA official told Mumbai Mirror. “We issued him a show cause notice after the incident came to our notice.” The investigator added that Captain Soman’s response was found to be unsatisfactory; he had blamed the engineering department.
DGCA emphasised that the flight safety chief of an airline was responsible for maintaining such data. “As a result of Captain Soman’s act, the DGCA was not able to conduct its investigation as no data was furnished by the airline,” joint-director general Lalit Gupta said.
DGCA norms require a scheduled airline to monitor data for every flight, which has to be preserved for six months. Following this incident, the DGCA had decided to conduct surprise checks of all airlines to make sure they are fully monitoring flight data.
Mumbai Mirror’s text messages and calls to Captain Soman, seeking comment, went unanswered.
Air India on Friday removed its chief of flight safety Captain AS Soman (pictured) on orders of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which found that he had neglected to maintain critical flight monitoring data. The lapse was brought to the DGCA’s notice during an investigation of a hard landing at Hyderabad reported by an AI passenger.
On June 28, Wing Commander Venkataramana Mantha, a passenger on board Air India flight AI-513 from Bangalore to Hyderabad complained to the aviation regulator about a particularly jarring touchdown, which resulted in AI suspending an aircraft maintenance engineer.
DGCA investigators found during a probe that the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) on board the aircraft contained no data related to the incident.
Investigators held that Captain Soman, as the official responsible for flight safety, was culpable of negligence. Captain Soman assumed the role in January.
“The pilot had reported bad weather [in Hyderabad] but when we asked for the data it was found that none was available as the flight hadn’t maintained information about the flight,” a senior DGCA official told Mumbai Mirror. “We issued him a show cause notice after the incident came to our notice.” The investigator added that Captain Soman’s response was found to be unsatisfactory; he had blamed the engineering department.
DGCA emphasised that the flight safety chief of an airline was responsible for maintaining such data. “As a result of Captain Soman’s act, the DGCA was not able to conduct its investigation as no data was furnished by the airline,” joint-director general Lalit Gupta said.
DGCA norms require a scheduled airline to monitor data for every flight, which has to be preserved for six months. Following this incident, the DGCA had decided to conduct surprise checks of all airlines to make sure they are fully monitoring flight data.
Mumbai Mirror’s text messages and calls to Captain Soman, seeking comment, went unanswered.
