NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) recent decision to inspect cabin of aircraft being used by Indian carriers during night parking — first reported by TOI on May 5 — and random spot checks is leading to discovery of many deficiencies on some birds due to lack of timely repairs and replacements.
DGCA's findings include an aircraft lav not marked unserviceable despite a cracked toilet seat, broken armrests and a “transparent tape arrangement” on one seat to fill in for a missing armrest. It also found 6 infant life vests kept in a bag meant for life vests for adults.
DGCA teams have between May 2 and 8, 2022, inspected 112 aircraft — 50 of SpiceJet and 62 of other Indian carriers — and carried out spot checks on an additional 168 aircraft — 100 of SpiceJet; IndiGo (18); Vistara (17); Air India (11); GoAir (10); AirAsia India (9); Alliance Air (2) and Flybig (1).
“None of these aircraft had to be grounded for repairs. The cabin deficiencies revealed during the spot checks and inspections are being brought to the notice of the airline concerned and they get most of the issues repaired at night itself,” said a senior official.
Other issues that do not affect safety are being given a week’s time to be fixed and the regulatory teams will check if those deadlines are being met.
“We are working with our airlines to upgrade passenger experience by attending to maintenance issues in the cabin. Needless to add, the main focus of our audit is safety. But simultaneously we are goading operators to take appropriate care of the cabin,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar told TOI.
The ongoing special cabin audit is in addition to regular engineering inspections.
Airlines globally, with India not being any exception, are under severe financial strain since the outbreak of Covid. Post Russia’s war on Ukraine, jet fuel prices globally have touched record highs.
For Indian carriers, the problem is compounded as the Rupee has touched record low. Many airline costs like lease payment and aircraft maintenance are dollar-denominated.
“The idea (of the ongoing checks) is to nudge airlines and get things completely right,” said a person in the know.
Accordingly, the DGCA spot checks and inspections of aircraft cabin is focussing on: External condition of aircraft to check for damages, missing panels and leakage; condition of cabin interiors including seats, side panels, hat-racks, windows, galley equipment and door seals; availability and conditions of emergency equipment; checking log book for reported defects and their rectification; availability of necessary manpower and availability of necessary facility including tools, equipment, maintenance data.
The cumulative effect of weak finances pre-2020; traffic being hit severely after March 2020 and now rocketing of operating costs is showing up in the cabins of aircraft being checked.
Sample this: The defect log book of an aircraft showed that one of its toilet’s seat has cracked. But the airline had neither secured this lavatory for not being used, nor reduced its seating capacity to factor in one less lav.
On another aircraft the defect log book showed the date of carrying out required repair was deferred for 10 days and then this date kept getting extended due to “unavailable spare parts like missing passenger seats hinge and armrest covers, torn seat, ceiling lights and air outlet gasper.”
On another aircraft it was found the airline had not carried out annual inspections of cabin potable fire extinguisher as required. The same aircraft’s refuel panel upper latch was found not serviceable. Its repair had been deferred for 120 days.
