India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has taken strict action against three senior Air India officials. This comes after they were found breaking important rules many times about how flight crew schedules are managed, as per the report by Hindustan Times.
Air India itself admitted that there were mistakes in how flight crew were scheduled. It was found that some crew members were allowed to fly even though they did not meet important rules like having valid licenses, enough rest, or recent flying experience. These issues came to light during a review after the airline changed its crew management system from ARMS (Aviation Resource Management System) to the new CAE Flight and Crew Management System.
The DGCA also said that it found three officials directly responsible for the issues. They are Choorah Singh, Divisional Vice President; Pinky Mittal, Chief Manager in the Crew Scheduling department; and Payal Arora, who works in Crew Scheduling – Planning.
This order was issued just days after an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatwick crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 241 people on board.
The three officials have been blamed for serious and repeated mistakes, such as assigning crew members who were not properly approved, breaking important rules about licensing and recent flying experience, and failing to follow proper scheduling procedures.
The DGCA has told Air India to remove these three officials from all duties related to crew scheduling and creating duty rosters.
The DGCA has ordered that the three officials be removed from any role that affects flight safety or crew rules. They will be given non-operational jobs until all problems in the scheduling system are fixed. “Internal disciplinary proceedings must be initiated against these officials without delay, and the outcome of such proceedings shall be reported to this office within 10 days from the date of issue of this letter,” the order stated.
The DGCA warned that if any similar mistakes are found in future checks or inspections, the airline will face serious consequences. “Any future violation of crew scheduling norms, licensing, or flight time limitations detected in any post-audit or inspection will attract strict enforcement action, including but not limited to penalties, license suspension, or withdrawal of operator permissions, as applicable,” the order concluded.
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