India's scores in ICAO air safety audit to improve substantially: DGCA

India's scores in the ICAO's air safety oversight audit will improve substantially as the international watchdog's just-concluded validation mission was highly successful as per the initial reports, regulator DGCA said on Wednesday.

ICAO is the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach, an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) was undertaken from November 9 to 16.

In a release on Wednesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the audit was conducted in the areas of legislation, organisation, personal licensing, operations, airworthiness and aerodromes.

"As per the initial reports, the mission was highly successful. India has done extremely well and our scores will see a substantial improvement putting us in the company of nations with best safety standards and oversight systems," the release said.

While the formal communication from ICAO will be received in due course of time, it is to be noted that this is India's best performance till date, the regulator said.

India is one of the fastest growing civil aviation markets globally and the sector is slowly recovering after being hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

USOAP monitors eight audit areas. They are Primary Aviation Legislation and Civil Aviation Regulations, Civil Aviation Organization, Personnel Licensing and Training, Aircraft Operations and Airworthiness of Aircraft.

Other areas are Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation, Air Navigation Services, and Aerodromes and Ground Aids.

In November 2017, ICAO carried out the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme for India and another team of the watchdog came in February 2018.

The audit result showed that the country's score declined to 57.44 per cent from 65.82 per cent earlier.

In November 2018, an ICAO team visited India and assessed the action taken on issues related to three areas that were audited by the watchdog in November 2015. Those pertained to Aerodromes and Ground Aids, Air Navigation Services (ANS) and Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation.

During the November 2017 visit, the ICAO team assessed five areas -- Personnel Licensing and Training, Aircraft Operations, Airworthiness of Aircraft, Primary Aviation Legislation and Civil Aviation Regulations, and Civil Aviation Organisation.

Through USOAP, ICAO monitors the fulfillment of the safety oversight obligations by its member states. USOAP CMA is a strategy that uses a risk-based approach for measuring and monitoring the safety oversight capabilities and improving safety performance of states and global aviation on a continuous basis.

ICAO also carries out ICVM to ascertain whether previously identified safety deficiencies have been resolved satisfactorily by assessing the status of corrective action plans or mitigating measures taken by member states to address findings.