DGCA may act against drunken aircraft engineers

With "shocking" reports that some aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) were found taxiing planes without undertaking the mandatory alcohol checks, aviation regulator DGCA is planning to summon safety heads of Indian airlines to ensure compliance of rules.
"Shockingly, almost all airlines have been found violating this mandatory regulation," sources in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said, adding that the regulator may consider withdrawing approval to such AMEs of some airlines.
Senior AMEs of airlines are licensed to taxi an aircraft from one place to another at an airport during non-operational times, generally during the nights, in the absence of pilots.

As per the norms, domestic airlines are required to carry out alcohol test on all such engineers who are approved for carrying out shifting of an aircraft from one bay to another.
"During a recent surveillance, the DGCA found that some of the engineers were not made to go through this mandatory alcohol test before undertaking the taxiing of the aircraft from one place to another," the sources said.
This has led the DGCA to seek a month's record from all the airlines to check their compliance with norms on this count, they said.

"The DGCA will soon call the safety heads of all airlines to seek an explanation from them on the issue," they said, adding that "the approval of some of the aircraft engineers may also be withdrawn."

According to a 2015 Civil Aviation Requirement of DGCA, "all maintenance personnel shall be subjected to breath- analyzer examination for alcohol consumption before undertaking any taxi operation of the aircraft. Maintenance personnel detected positive for alcohol consumption during breath-analyzer examination shall be off-rostered. Penal action on such cases shall be taken as per the provisions....
"All such violations shall be endorsed on the individual's license by DGCA. It shall be the responsibility of chief of flight safety/accountable manager to submit the license/authorisation to DGCA for necessary endorsement," according to 2015 CAR.