DGCA working on FAA recommendations

Aviation regulator DGCA is working on the observations and suggestions made by its US counterpart FAA during its recent safety audit but needs six more months to fully comply with all the recommendations, official sources said today.
Among concerns raised by Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) over 33 issues are filling up of several senior positions including those of full-time Flight Operations Inspectors (FOIs), beefing up of aviation safety training programmes and lack of manuals and documentation on certain safety issues.
The FAA is scheduled to give its final report on its December audit in a couple of weeks, the sources said. On the basis of this report after a two-day compliance audit, FAA would decide whether to downgrade India's aviation safety status or maintain it on the top Category-I.

Of the 33 deficiencies, corrective measures were taken on 26 issues which were deemed as closed. Of the remaining seven, the status was of work-in-progress, the sources said.
A three-member technical team of the FAA had carried out the second round of audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in December to check the status of corrective steps recommended in the first round in September to resolve the 33 deficiencies highlighted by the US agency.
While the FAA was "satisfied" with the safety training programmes meant for all airline staffers, it had raised concerns over lack of proving flights of the new aircraft used by private operators, the Boeing 787 Dreamliners. It also wanted 'table-top' exercises for the long-haul Boeing 777s for safety operations in-flight and on ground, the sources said.

"There were these concerns and we have sought about six months to resolve all of them. We are hopeful that they will give us more time as we are working on a plan to address them," a source said.