Aviation ministry says govt in final leg of addressing air safety issues

The government is in the final leg of addressing the US Federal Aviation Agency (US FAA) concerns on the aviation safety standards in the country, said Ashok Lavasa, secretary, civil aviation.

Once completed, the country will apply for the review of the safety standards by the US FAA.

It must be noted that the country's air safety ranking has been downgraded to category-II in the FAA December audit, placing India in the league of countries like Swaziland, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.

Speaking on the ministry's efforts to regain the ranking, Lavasa said pending the completion of airworthiness training and recruitment of flight operating inspectors, all other issues had been fully complied with.

"While the training of airworthiness officers is expected to be completed by the end of March, we are currently in the process of recruiting 75 highly-qualified flight operating inspectors to meet the standards," he said.

The realistic timeframe for approaching the US FAA depends on how successful we are on recruiting the flight operating inspectors, Lavasa added.

The FAA announcement last month found the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was lacking in number of flight operation inspectors trained for checking Boeing 787 and A380 Super Jumbo jets, while the airworthiness officers weren't trained for the aircraft being used by non-scheduled operators.

Importantly, the downgrade prevents Indian carriers from expanding operations to the US, partnering the American airlines, inking partnerships or using planes other than those they are flying now. However, only two Indian airlines, Air India and Jet Airways, fly to the US.