US, Indian aviation regulators to hold talks next month

Two months after raising certain safety concerns with DGCA, a team from US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will arrive here next month to hold discussions on the corrective measures being taken by India in this regard.
Weeks after a safety audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by the UN-body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a four-member FAA team carried out a similar audit in September and raised concerns over several vacancies, including top posts of Joint Directors General and Deputy Directors General, at a time when air traffic in India was growing at a rapid pace.
It had also adversely commented on the conduct of the regular training programmes, including those for pilots, engineers and cabin crew.

After a real-time audit at some airports, the FAA had also pointed to certain lacunae in the implementation of safety norms followed by a few airlines and non-scheduled private operators.
Asked about the possibility of a safety downgrade by the FAA, highly-placed officials asserted that there was no such question and the upcoming talks in December was "a very pragmatic, problem-solving approach."
Replying to a question, they also categorically ruled out the possibility of a trade war between India and the US if the FAA downgraded the DGCA.

These were routine discussions between the aviation regulators of the two countries to share problems and experiences and work out ways to resolve them, the officials said.

"In September, the FAA had made certain observations. It wanted some corrective action taken on wide-body operations and training issues. Consultations have to be carried out on these two issues as per ICAO norms," they said.
Corrective actions were being taken right now and consultations would be held with FAA again on December 11, the officials said.