Airlines reported 478 technical snags in the past year, from July 1, 2021, to June 31, 2022, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday.
From the start of this year till July 25, airlines reported five incidents (SpiceJet-2, Alliance Air-1, Air India-1 and IndiGo-1), four serious incidents (IndiGo-3, Air Asia-1) and one accident (SpiceJet), which revealed the data presented by Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia in the Lok Sabha.
These figures are lower than those seen in the same comparative period in 2019, when there were eight incidents (Air India -2, SpiceJet-2, Air India Express-1, IndiGo-1, Air Asia India-1 and Vistara-1), 13 serious incidents (IndiGo-6, SpiceJet -2, Vistara- 2, GoFirst-1, Alliance Air-1, Air India Express-1) and one accident (SpiceJet).
The UN aviation watchdog, International Civil Aviation Organization, classifies flight occurrences into three categories- incidents, serious incidents and accidents.
An accident is one where a person is fatally or seriously injured or an aircraft sustains damage or sees structural failure or it is either missing or inaccessible. A serious incident is one where there is a high probability of an accident; an incident is a situation associated with the operation of an aircraft that affects or could affect flight safety.
Between July 2021 and June 2022, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) carried out a total of 177 surveillance, 497 spot checks and 169 night surveillance to examine the engineering and maintenance aspects of various airlines.
Following these inspections, the regulator took action in 21 instances of violations, which included measures such as suspension of licence, withdrawal of the airline staff responsible for aircraft maintenance as well as issuance of warning letters.
