Following a pointy reprimand from India’s aviation regulator DGCA, Air India Specific on Friday admitted to an error in changing engine elements on considered one of its Airbus A320 plane and stated it has now fastened the problem, together with implementing corrective and preventive measures.
In a press release shared with IANS, the airline stated that an Airworthiness Directive (AD) issued in Could 2023 by the European Union Aviation Security Company (EASA) was relevant to 2 engines in its stock.
Whereas the required change was carried out on one engine inside the stipulated timeframe, the directive for the opposite was missed as a consequence of a document migration difficulty within the airline’s monitoring software program.
“Totally on account of the migration of data on the monitoring software program platform, the technical staff missed the set off for one engine,” the airline stated.
It added that the mandatory adjustments had been made “as quickly as this was recognized” and that compliance for the second engine was additionally accomplished inside the deadline.
“We acknowledged the error to the DGCA and undertook remedial motion and preventive measures with speedy impact. Mandatory administrative actions had been additionally taken in opposition to the individuals held accountable,” the assertion stated.
This response comes in opposition to the backdrop of a confidential DGCA memo, which accused Air India Specific of failing to interchange engine elements inside the necessary timeframe and allegedly altering upkeep data to indicate false compliance.
The violations had been found throughout a routine DGCA audit in October 2024 and formally communicated to the airline in March this yr.
The DGCA memo had flagged that the half modification “was not complied (with)” on one engine of an Airbus A320, inside the required limits.
It additionally raised issues over doable tampering of data within the airline’s Plane Upkeep and Engineering Working System (AMOS).
The protection lapse predates the tragic June crash of an Air India Dreamliner in Ahmedabad that killed 241 of the 242 individuals on board, the deadliest aviation catastrophe in a decade.
Air India Specific, which is at the moment present process fleet growth and integration with AIX Join (previously AirAsia India), has reiterated its dedication to “the best requirements of security and regulatory compliance”.
