Eight aircraft accidents since 2019, DGCA conducts 353 spot checks, surveillance: Aviation Ministry

New Delhi [India], August 1 : Under a special drive, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducted 353 spot checks and surveillance in 77 days, informed the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The information was given by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation General Dr VK Singh (Retd) in a written reply to a question on the number of incidents of accidents involving aircraft that have taken place during the last three years and the action taken by the government to reduce the number of such incidents.
Singh replied that a total of eight accidents have been reported involving scheduled airline operators from the year 2019 to July 22, 2022.
In 2019, only one incident happened that involved SpiceJet, in 2020 two incidents happened involving Air India Express and IndiGo.
In 2021, four incidents took place involving one each of Air India Express and Vistara and two of Indigo. In 2022 to date only one incident involving SpiceJet took place.
He added that the actions were taken by the government to reduce such incidents of accidents inter alia includes accident/incident data is regularly analyzed and based on the analysis, guidance in the form of advisory Circulars is issued to bring important observations/findings to the notice of the operators to avoid the recurrence of the accidents/incidents.
There is a systematic safety oversight process in place for monitoring the compliance of Rules and Civil Aviation Requirements.
The safety oversight process includes surveillance, Spot checks and regulatory audits. In addition, special audits are also carried out as per the risk perceived, he added.
Rajya Sabha BJP MP from Uttrakhand Naresh Bansal has asked questions on the action taken by the government to reduce the number of such incidents of accidents and the details thereof; and the total number of air accidents during the last three years that have happened due to low flying by trainee pilots, year-wise.
Singh informed that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducts surveillance/spot checks as per the Annual Surveillance Plan (ASP). Findings of audits, surveillances and spot checks are followed up with the concerned operator for compliance. The observations are closed after due verification.
The compliance of the action taken by the operator is verified during the next audit/surveillance. In case of any violations/ non-compliance to regulations detected during audit/surveillance, enforcement action including financial penalty is imposed by the DGCA.
"Safety recommendations emanating from the investigation reports are followed up for implementation with the concerned agencies so as to prevent recurrence of a similar incident in future," he said.
He added that Spot checks and surveillance have been increased during the period of May 2 to July 13, 2022, as a special drive 353 spot checks were undertaken by DGCA.
There has been NIL accident in the last three years caused due to low flying by trainee pilots.