Aviation Secy reviews preparations for safety audit by ICAO

Civil Aviation Secretary Rajeev Nayan Choubey today held a meeting to review preparations for the comprehensive safety audit by the UN body, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) next month.
The ICAO audit, the third in last nine years, would take place in November and cover issues such as aerodrome operations, air traffic control, air navigation and aircraft investigation mechanism.
The review meeting was attended by the senior officials from DGCA and Airports Authority of India, among others, sources said.
"Choubey held a meeting with all the stakeholders including the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India among others to assess the preparations for the ICAO audit in November," they said.

Earlier this year, US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had also conducted a similar exercise following which India's aviation safety ranking was revoked to category 1.
As part of the preparations, while the BCAS has started hiring about 400-500 personnel to meet the acute manpower shortage, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is also inducting 21 personnel at different levels including the investigators, after getting a go-ahead from the Finance Ministry.

Besides, the government has also approved the creation of a post of the Director General to head the bureau and the recruitment rules in this regard are expected to be notified soon, the sources said.

Presently headed by a senior DGCA official, it will function as an independent entity as required under the ICAO guidelines.
The Bureau was carved out of the DGCA in 2012 and mandated with the investigation of all major aircraft accidents in the country.