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DGCA writes to FAA, says India fit for Category 1 upgrade

DGCA writes to FAA saying it has completed all requirements necessary for upgrading India?s air safety rating back to Category 1.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) wrote to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week saying that it has completed all the requirements necessary for the latter to upgrade India?s air safety rating back to Category 1.

While the original plan was to approach the FAA for a fresh safety audit in June, the civil aviation ministry now expects to start the process in August.

Two issues had been remaining as of January this year when the FAA had downgraded the safety rating to Category 2 – the hiring of ?adequate? number of flight operations inspectors (FOIs) and training of airworthiness officers. While the training was completed in March itself, the DGCA has also selected 35 FOIs for hiring in the first phase, a DGCA official said. This month, it will again advertise for posts of 16 more FOIs.

?What the FAA had said was that we need an adequate number of FOIs as per the aircraft fleet of the country, they had not prescribed a number. Our calculation is that we need one FOI per 10 planes, and we have about 750 aircraft in the country across both the scheduled and non-scheduled operators,? a DGCA official told FE.

He added, ?We have selected 35 FOIs, of which 15 are already with us and the rest 20 should join in a month. Some are coming from the Air Force, so they need about 45 days for discharge.

The hiring had started after the Cabinet in late January this year allowed DGCA to hire 75 FOIs on its pay rolls at salaries competitive with the prevailing market rate, instead of the previous practice where airlines sent its own staff to the DGCA on deputation as FOIs. The FAA had also highlighted that the previous practice has a severe ?conflict of interest?. ?

?We expect to go to the FAA seeking a fresh audit by August. The hiring of FOIs from our end is nearly complete,? a civil aviation ministry official said.

The DGCA faces a major staff shortage that has been credited to being one of the major reasons for the downgrade. In all, the regulator has 1,250 total sanctioned posts, of which 613 are for key technical staff who among other things are tasked with aircraft health inspections.

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First published on: 02-06-2014 at 09:43 IST
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