Bombay High Court asks Air India to review safety of long haul flights

The Bombay High Court last week directed the DGCA to examine concerns raised by a pilot over the safety mechanism in Air Indiarsquos certain leased Boeing 777200LR aircraft having long distance flight paths between India and the United States of America USAA bench of Justice B P Colabawalla and Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan on December 19 passed an order on a writ plea filed by the petitioner pilot claiming that the said aircraft leased in November 2022 does not have adequate oxygen supply for certain paths between USA and IndiaAccording to the order the court said ldquoThe matter was not a bilateral dispute between the parties but it involves issues of a wider social impact involving flight safety and passenger safetyrdquoDGCA to examine concernsThe court in its order asked DGCA to consider whether Air Indiarsquos concerned leased Boeing 777200LR aircraft earlier with Delta Airlines having 12 minutes of emergency oxygen supply can descend to an altitude of 10000 feet within 12 minutes and land safely at the planned alternative airport in case of decompressionIt asked the aviation safety regulator DGCA to hear the petitioner pilot the airline and consider all relevant materials and arrive at its findings on compliance with the regulations and certain needs for remedial measures and directions if anyAccording to the order ldquoThe petitioner in the plea claims that lsquoas per the Flight Crew Operating Manual FCOM and Flight Planning and Performance Manual FPPM limitations and state regulations it is necessary to have sufficient quantity of chemically generated stored breathing oxygen more than 12 minutes for all crew members and passengersAn adequate quantity of stored breathing oxygen is mandatory for longdistance flights on paths having high mountainous terrains till the aircraft reachesdescends to an altitude of 10000 feet or lower In case of depressurisation it is not possible to descend to an altitude of 10000 feet within 12 minutes due to vast stretches of mountainous terrains and the insufficiency was in violation of regulatory norms and detrimental to the passengersrsquo safetyrsquordquoThe court noted that the petitioner who had served as a Boeing 777 commander as per his plea had refused to operate a particular flight on January 30 2023 till a legally viable and safe route was provided for him to fly from San Francisco to Bengaluru He was grounded by the airline in February last year and was subsequently terminated in May 2023 He approached DGCA in October 2023 with a complaint raising concerns over lack of safetySenior advocate appearing for Air India opposed the plea during the hearing stating ldquoThe airline has complied with every applicable safety norm in this regardrdquoUnbiased regulatory oversightDisposing of the plea the bench said ldquoAfter hearing submissions at length as we are not experts in the field and the parties had consented to refer the matter to the aviation safety regulator it was appropriate for DGCA to consider the issue without getting influenced by the courtrsquos views The DGCA which has several pilots from Air India on deputation should ensure no room is left for a perception of conflict of interest at any level during regulatory reviewrdquoA senior DGCA official speaking to midday said ldquoOn January 24 we DGCA slapped R11 crore fine on Air India for prima facie noncompliance of regulations The appellate authority on May 24 also upheld the order However the petitioner approached the High Court challenging the said orders stating that mere imposition of the fine was insufficient to remedy the situationrdquo The official added ldquoAs per the court directions we DGCA will be looking into the matter again and will come to a proper unbiased conclusionrdquo Air India did not reply to the queries sent by midday till press time