New Delhi. Making a big revelation in the country’s aviation sector, DGCA reprimanded Air India for operating a non-airworthy aircraft. This matter is not just a technical mistake but is considered to be a lapse in security protocol that has raised serious questions on the airline’s procedures. DGCA not only immediately grounded the aircraft but also de-rostered the responsible employees and gave a strict warning to Air India to thoroughly investigate the system flaws.
How did the matter come to light?
DGCA’s preliminary investigation revealed that Air India allowed one of its 164-seater Airbus A320s to take off even when its Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) had expired. This certificate is a mandatory certificate to declare the airworthiness of any aircraft. The surprising thing is that this aircraft had flown eight flights between 24 and 25 November. This means that hundreds of passengers had traveled in an aircraft without a valid security certificate. Ultimately, an Air India engineer noticed the discrepancy in the documents. He immediately reported it and only then the plane was taken out of service. DGCA says that if this mistake was not caught in time, its risk could have been very serious.
How did ARC expire? What came out in the DGCA investigation?
As per the detailed information in the second part, Air India is an approved CAMO (Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation) and the ARC is renewed once a year. After the Vistara-Air India merger in 2024, it was decided that DGCA would take up the responsibility of the first ARC renewal of all 70 aircraft of Vistara. In this process, DGCA had already issued the ARC of 69 aircraft, while the ARC of the 70th aircraft was pending. During this time the plane was grounded to replace its engine. Its ARC expired during engine change. As per rules, the aircraft cannot be put into operation until the ARC is updated or renewed. But Air India flouted the rules and put the aircraft with expired ARC back into service, and also flew eight revenue flights. When DGCA was informed about this on 26 November, the regulator immediately showed strictness.
DGCA action – fine on Air India
DGCA ordered Air India to fix accountability in clear words and took immediate action.
The regulator said:
• Ordered to ground the aircraft immediately,
• De-rostered the responsible employees,
• And started a formal investigation into the matter.
DGCA termed this as a serious violation of security protocol and said that this level of lapse is not acceptable under any circumstances.
Pressure increased after Dreamliner accident
This incident has come to light at a time when Air India is already in controversy over the June 12 Dreamliner crash, in which 260 passengers died. After that accident, the airline had claimed that it was working on a zero-tolerance policy regarding safety. But the new revelations have raised serious questions on the airline’s internal controls, monitoring, audit mechanisms and operational culture.
Air India also involved in investigation
Following strict instructions from DGCA, Air India has also started an internal investigation into its CAMO system, document management and ground-to-cockpit workflow. The airline has said it is taking “corrective steps” to ensure such a mistake does not happen again.
Air India’s troubles increased
In this entire matter, DGCA has adopted a very aggressive stance and made it clear that there will be no compromise on flight safety. A basic lapse like expiry of ARC on the part of Air India has been considered as gross negligence and till the investigation report comes, the pressure on the airline may increase further. The plane may have been grounded, but for Air India, this case poses a big question on its credibility, processes and future oversight—and the DGCA has made it clear that this time the case will not be left “without teaching a lesson”.
