Federal Aviation Administration observations to be adressed: DGCA

New Delhi: The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that conducted an audit of aviation regulator DGCA, has made certain “observations” related to “regulatory and guidance material”, on which time-bound action would be taken, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) assured on Sunday, claiming that the audit was “very satisfactory”.

The FAA — under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme — conducted the audit between July 16 and July 20 in areas covering “aircraft operations, airworthiness and personnel licensing”, the aviation regulator said.

It added that “a written report will be provided within next 30 days and that thereafter FAA team will come for a final consultation within 65 days wherein DGCA shall present the action taken on the observations”.

However, the exact nature of the observations was not revealed officially from the DGCA. In a statement, the DGCA said, “At the end of the five-day audit, the FAA team gave a verbal out-brief listing the observations which relate to regulatory and guidance material issues within DGCA. Overall the audit has been very satisfactory. As per FAA’s established process, a written report will be provided within next 30 days and thereafter a FAA team will come for a final consultation within 65 days wherein DGCA shall present the action taken on the observations. Meanwhile, DGCA is commencing action on the observations made during the verbal out-brief given by FAA team and is very confident to address all those within the timelines.”

The aviation regulator added, “Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of USA, under its International Aviation Safety Assessment  program, conducted an audit of DGCA in the areas covering aircraft operations, airworthiness and personnel licensing from 16th to 20th July 2018. 

“During the course of the IASA audit, the FAA team was shown regulations including extensive technical guidance in the areas of operations, airworthiness, surveillance and enforcement for the use of safety inspectors of DGCA for carrying out licensing, certification, and approval obligations along with certification records. The training programme provided to the technical officers and inspectors and records therein was also shown to the FAA audit team.”

According to reports, this was the third audit by FAA since 2013 when the FAA had downgraded the safety ranking of the Indian aviation sector and restored it only in 2015. 

According to PTI, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had carried out the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme for India in November 2017 and the result showed that the country’s score declined to 57.44 per cent from 65.82 per cent earlier. The dip was reportedly mainly due to ratings of air traffic controllers being given by the AAI, which is also the provider of air traffic control 
services.