Remove AI's safety head: DGCA

This is the second time DGCA has taken such an action against the flight safety chief of an airline

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday ordered the removal of Air India’s flight safety chief, A S Soman, over landing issues last month. This is the second time the DGCA has taken such an action against the flight safety chief of an airline and the first time for Air India.

“Air safety is our priority and whatever is required to maintain safety, the DGCA will do,” DGCA chief M Sathiyavathi told Business Standard.

On June 28, Air India’s flight from Bengaluru to Hyderabad saw some landing issues and the airline did not maintain flight data. According to the DGCA’s inquiry, the pilot reported bad weather but when the authority sought data, it was found no surveillance had been done for the flight.

“We could not carry out our investigation, as the airline did not furnish the data. When Soman was issued a notice, he blamed the engineering department for not maintaining data,” a senior DGCA official said on condition of anonymity.

The regulator had sought flight-monitoring data for May 23-June 25 from Soman.

This is the second time the flight safety head of an airline has been removed. In December last year, the air safety chief of Jet Airways, N T Malkani, was removed “for not being able to handle safety issues”, the DGCA source said. Jet couldn’t be reached for comment.

A scheduled airline has to monitor data stored in digital flight data recorders and preserve it for six months. The data helps the regulator in checking for deviation in flight parameters.

Soman was appointed Air India’s air safety chief in January. Though he will continue to be part of the airline, he has been removed from the post of director of air safety.

“We have not removed him from the job. We have withdrawn his approval as air safety head,” said a source.

Now, Air India will have to send nominations for the post, after which a DGCA selection board will appoint a new flight safety chief for the airline. The DGCA is conducting surprise checks on all airlines to ensure they are monitoring flight data. This is not the first time the DGCA has pulled up Soman for flouting norms.

Soman was the senior pilot flying Air India’s first Dreamliner passenger service on September 19, when he stepped out of the cockpit mid-air to interact with passengers. While he was away, the trainee co-pilot flew the plane. At that time, Air India denied any safety violation.

Soman has held several positions in the airline, including those of executive director of operations and flight training.