DGCA direction to Air India on mandatory equipment list

Aviation regulator DGCA has warned national carrier Air India not to fly any of its Airbus A319 planes unless it carries onboard a revised copy of the mandatory minimum equipment list.
The issue came to the notice during a Directorate General of Civil Aviation inspection of one of its planes at Mumbai Airport, in which the Flight Operations Inspector found the aircraft having an old version of the document onboard.
Air India, however, said that it has taken "rectified" the mistake, after it received the DGCA communication on the issue.
The list, which enables the commander to determine whether a flight may be commenced or continued from any intermediate stop in the eventuality of any instrument, equipment or systems becoming inoperative, was revised in November 2014 but Air India was doing with the copy of the old version, sources said.

"Despite the DGCA given its approval to the revised list in November last year, Air India failed to get it published and circulate a hard copy onboard all its A319 planes, thereby inviting a warning," a DGCA source said.
According to sources, the list provides for "go" or "no- go" to the commander in case of some technical glitch in the plane and has to be, by rule, onboard before any departure.

"At times there are certain snags which need not ground the plane as they can be rectified after the arrival of the flight but there are certain snags which needs to be rectified before any departure. The list provides for such go and no-go," they said.

When contacted, a senior Air India official admitted that the revised MEL copy was not carried on one of its flight but said it was provided immediately after the issue was brought to its notice.
"It (the revised list) is a 132-page document and only a part of it has been amended and not the entire document. But we have already provided the soft copy of the revised MEL list. We will ensure that all the 22 A319s that we have in the fleet get the hard copy as well," the official directly connected to the issue said.
The official also said Air India has already started investigation into the lapses and would take suitable action once the report is submitted to the airline management.