Dgca Asks Air India To Remove 3 Crew Rostering Officials Over ‘recent Safety Lapses’

The aviation regulator, nan Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has ordered contiguous action against 3 elder officials of Air India pursuing “serious and repeated violations” related to formation unit scheduling.

It is important to statement that nary of these suspensions are related to nan AI171 crash.

The DGCA connected June 21, directed nan hose to region 3 officials, including a elder formation operations official, for “systemic nonaccomplishment successful unit scheduling, compliance monitoring and soul accountability”.

The officials named are Choorah Singh, Divisional Vice President; Pinky Mittal, Chief Manager - DOPS, Crew Scheduling; and Payal Arora, Crew Scheduling - Planning.

According to nan DGCA order, these individuals were progressive successful aggregate lapses, including unauthorised and non-compliant unit pairings, violations of licensing and unit remainder norms and systemic failures successful oversight.

These lapses, voluntarily disclosed by nan airline, revealed that formation unit were scheduled and operated contempt not gathering mandatory licensing, remainder and recency norms. The violations were uncovered during a post-transition reappraisal from nan ARMS (Aviation Resource Management System—an integrated strategy airlines usage for unit management) to nan CAE Flight and Crew Management System.

"Of peculiar interest is nan absence of strict disciplinary measures against cardinal officials straight responsible for these operational lapses,” nan bid said.

The pursuing directions were issued by nan regulator pinch contiguous effect:

1. M/s Air India is directed to region nan above-mentioned officials from each roles and responsibilities related to unit scheduling and rostering.

2. Internal disciplinary proceedings must beryllium initiated against these officials without delay, and nan result of specified proceedings shall beryllium reported to this agency wrong 10 days from nan day of rumor of this letter.

3. The aforementioned officials shall beryllium reassigned to non-operational roles pending conclusion of corrective reforms successful scheduling practices, and shall not clasp immoderate position involving nonstop power complete formation safety and unit compliance until further notice.

4. Any early usurpation of unit scheduling norms, licensing, aliases formation clip limitations detected successful immoderate post-audit aliases inspection, will pull strict enforcement action, including but not constricted to penalties, licence suspension, aliases withdrawal of usability permissions arsenic applicable.

"We admit nan regulator’s directive and person implemented nan order. In nan interim, nan company's Chief Operations Officer will supply nonstop oversight to nan Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC). Air India is committed to ensuring that location is full adherence to information protocols and modular practices," an Air India spokesperson said.

Published on: Jun 21, 2025 2:05 PM IST