RIL plane grounded, pilot suspended for violations

Jindal group aircraft searched as well, action on Monday

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday grounded a business jet owned by Reliance Industries (RIL) for carrying expired safety equipment on-board and suspended its pilot for flying without a licence.

The aviation regulator, which carried out a surprise inspection at Delhi's IGI Airport, also searched Jindal Steel and Power Ltd's Global Express BD 700 aircraft and found several major lapses, official sources said. While action against the Jindal company aircraft would be decided on Monday, the Reliance plane was grounded immediately, just before it was slated to take off from there, they said.

(BS Reporter adds: A senior DGCA official confirmed the development. A Reliance Commercial Dealers Ltd spokesperson said, "All the required documents and equipment have been supplied to the DGCA and we are cooperating with the authorities to ensure that everything is in order. We are hoping that the DGCA will soon release the plane." A Jindal Steel and Power spokesperson said, "We are surprised by the DGCA observations, since we maintain very high standards of upkeep and safety of our aircraft. However, we will diligently look into the observations.")

The action comes at a time when private planes and helicopters are being heavily used as charters to fly political leaders across the country on election campaigns. The sources said a 14-seater Falcon 900EX, with call-sign VT-ISH and registered in the name of Reliance Commercial Dealers Ltd, was grounded after it was found that most safety equipment on-board, including a fire extinguisher and personal breathing equipment, were beyond expiry dates. The cabin compartment containing the escape rope was found jammed, they said. The commander of the aircraft was also not carrying his licence when he was asked to show one, they said. The co-pilot was not in possession of certain documents to be mandatorily carried. DGCA chief Prabhat Kumar directed that the aircraft would remain grounded till the deficiencies were removed and all equipment replaced with new ones, the sources said.

The 13-seater Global Express BD 700 aircraft (VT-JSB), owned by the Jindals, carried operation manuals of other aircraft and not its own.

It also did not have the list of safety and emergency equipment on-board, the sources said. Though the aircraft was not certified for ETOPS (Extended Range Twin Operations), ETOP certification was found signed by aircraft maintenance engineers, they said. Noting that there were several other serious deficiencies, the sources said most of the findings were "significant" and "appropriate action" would be taken after further verification of records on Monday.

Following the downgrade of the Indian aviation safety system by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on January 31, the DGCA has been conducting such surprise checks on a regular basis. During its inspection, the FAA, apart from finding several other safety deficiencies, had pointed towards some facing the planes of Reliance Commercial Dealer Ltd, including that they were operating without carrying out flight readiness checks.