DGCA suspends SpiceJet pilot for six months for runway incursion at Ahmedabad airport

Aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday suspended a SpiceJet pilot for six months for reaching the middle of an "active runway" at Ahmedabad airport when a GoAir flight had already started its departure roll there, sources said.

The pilot was flying the flight SEJ2988 from Ahmedabad to Jaipur on July 9.

"SpiceJet pilot-in-command (PIC) Vikram Singh Chauhan was issued a show cause notice by DGCA on August 22, asking why no action should be taken against him for endangering the safety of aircraft and passengers on board. On Tuesday, he was suspended for six months," a source told PTI.

In its investigation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found that despite the Air Traffic Control (ATC) telling the PIC to "hold at holding point RWY05" of taxiway B, and the first officer repeating the same ATC instructions, Capt. Chauhan "breached" the holding point and reached the middle of an active runway, the source said.

"GoAir flight GOW913 had already started its departure roll when the SpiceJet plane reached into the middle of an active runway without any clearance from ATC," the DGCA probe found, according to another source.

Moreover, the source said, when the PIC was told by ATC to vacate the active runway via taxiway A, he decided not to vacate as per the instructions.

"Instead, the aircraft came back to the holding point RWY05 by applying reverse thrust once again without taking any clearance from ATC," the source told PTI.

In response to the show cause notice issued by DGCA, Capt. Chauhan accepted his mistake and explained that the whole incident happened "due to error in judgement based on presumption and inadequate monitoring of ATC instructions", the source said.

"As a result, the DGCA on Tuesday has suspended his pilot licence for a period of six months. This period would be calculated from July 12, 2019," the source added.