DGCA orders AI to remove 3 officials for rostering lapses; slaps show-cause notice over duty time violation

Mumbai, Jun 21 (PTI) Aviation safety watchdog DGCA has ordered Tata Group-owned Air India to remove three senior officials for lapses in crew scheduling and rostering and issued a show-cause notice to the airline for violating FDTL norms, sources said on Saturday.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has also sought Air India inspection and audit details since 2024, they said.

The directives come after an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed shortly after takeoff on June 12, killing over 270 people onboard and on the ground. In its order of June 20, the DGCA noted that the three officials, including a divisional vice-president, were involved in "serious and repeated lapses, including unauthorised and non-compliant crew pairings, violation of mandatory licensing and recency norms and systemic failures in scheduling protocol and oversight".

The DGCA directed the airline to initiate proceedings against these three officials without delay.

Air India in a statement said it has acknowledged the regulator's directive and implemented the order.

"In the interim, the company's chief operations officer will provide direct oversight to the Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC).

"Air India is committed to ensuring that there is total adherence to safety protocols and standard practices," the airline said in a statement.

The violations, according to the DGCA, were discovered during the post-transition review from ARMS to the CAE Flight and Crew Management System.

ARMS (Air Route Management System) is the software platform used by the airline for various operational and management tasks, including crew rostering and flight planning, among others.

The voluntary disclosures, "while noted, point to systemic failures in crew scheduling, compliance monitoring, and internal accountability," the DGCA order said, and flagged that "particular concern is the absence of strict disciplinary measures against key officials directly responsible for these operational lapses".

The DGCA also warned Air India that future violations in crew scheduling will invite "strict action", including licence suspension and operational restrictions.

In its show-cause notice, the regulator said it detected the violations in Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms during spot checks of the airline's Bengaluru-London flights of May 16 and 17, wherein the FDTL had exceeded 10-hour limit, as per the notice.

"...during a spot check, it has been observed that the Accountable Manager of Air India operated two flights from Bangalore to London (Al133) on 16 May 2025 and 17 May 2025, both of which exceeded the stipulated flight time limit of 10 hours," the DGCA said in the notice, citing violation of Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR Section 7, Series J Part III).

Comments from Air India on the notice were awaited.

"It is further noted that the Accountable Manager of Air India Ltd has failed to ensure adherence to the provisions and compliance requirements...," the regulator said in the notice.

The DGCA has asked Air India to explain within seven days why "action should not be taken for these violations, as per the notice".

Amid all this, according to the sources, the regulator has asked its flight operations inspectors to provide details of all inspections and audits conducted for Air India since 2024.

The details on the findings of the inspections and audits will have to be submitted by Sunday, as per the sources.

The competent authority, in an e-mail on Saturday, has sought these details for 2024 and 2025 (to date), the sources said.

The data has been sought on planned and unplanned inspections, audit, cockpit/ enroute, station facility, ramp and cabin inspection among others, the sources added. PTI IAS TRB