Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) , which is the regulatory firm for Civil Aviation, dealing with safety issues , noted that Air India’s leased Boeing 777 plane flew to the US without having the required system of emergency oxygen supply.
The Decision was taken after complaint made against Air India by a former senior pilot, who had served as a B777 commander, complained about the practice to the ministry and the DGCA on October 29 , alleging that the airline operated Boeing 777 planes to the US without having the required system of emergency oxygen supply.
So what are the safety concerns over which DGCA fined Air India……
Generally , Most aircraft have cylinders to supply oxygen to overhead masks that deploy in case of cabin de-pressurisation for 12-15 minutes per passenger.
This time is enough for planes for descend to 10,000 feet after which they are in an ambient environment safe for humans. At that altitude air is fed from the engine for cooling the aircraft and breathing.
However , aircrafts flying from Delhi to the Europe & most of the North American Cities need to overfly the mighty Hindu Kush range to bypass Afghan airspace which was closed for civillian traffic more than 2 years ago.
So Aircrafts flying over high mountains can only descend to 10,000 feet after surpassing that range & they need to fly for much longer at higher altitude, and that requires extra cylinders on aircraft to supply oxygen to overhead passenger masks for 25-30 minutes.
Though some of old B777’s used by Air India have the required system of emergency oxygen supply & take the route regularly but the recent models of the same do not have that facility which is okay for the routes which do not need to overfly Hindu Kush.
The Pilot who complained , also mentioned that he had once rejected to fly a leased B777 aircraft for the Air India flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru on January 30 2023 due to the same issue of oxygen supply during his service period and just 3 months later of refusing to fly the aircraft, he was terminated from the service by the airline.
On January 24 , aviation watchdog has said it has initiated legal action and imposed a penalty of Rs 1.10 crore on Air India over allegations of safety violations of flights on certain long-range terrain critical routes.
“The matter in question is multi-dimensional and has already been examined by Air India and external experts. We will restrain from offering any comment on this specific case but we wish to reiterate that the safety of our passengers and crew is our foremost priority and there is no compromise on the same,” an Air India spokesperson had said in November.
Notably , This is the seventh fine Air India has been facing by the DGCA in the last 12 months. The airline has been fined around Rs 2.5 crore in the last 12 months for various fines including a Rs 10 lakh fine last week for failure to comply with rules about facilities that are required to be provided to passengers.
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