Concerns over insufficient oxygen supply for certain paths were raised in court
Concerns were raised by a pilot over the safety mechanism in Air India’s certain leased Boeing 777-200LR
The Bombay High Court last week directed the DGCA to examine concerns raised by a pilot over the safety mechanism in Air India’s certain leased Boeing 777-200LR aircraft having long distance flight paths between India and the United States of America (USA).
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A 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 India.
According to the order, the court said, “The matter was not a bilateral dispute between the parties but it involves issues of a wider social impact involving flight safety and passenger safety.”
DGCA to examine concerns
The court in its order asked DGCA to consider whether Air India’s concerned leased Boeing 777-200LR aircraft (earlier with Delta Airlines) having 12 minutes of emergency oxygen supply can descend to an altitude of 10,000 feet within 12 minutes and land safely at the planned alternative airport in case of decompression.
It 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 any.
According to the order, “The petitioner in the plea claims that ‘as 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 passengers.
An adequate quantity of stored breathing oxygen is mandatory for long-distance flights on paths having high mountainous terrains till the aircraft reaches/descends to an altitude of 10,000 feet or lower. In case of depressurisation, it is not possible to descend to an altitude of 10,000 feet within 12 minutes due to vast stretches of mountainous terrains and the insufficiency was in violation of regulatory norms and detrimental to the passengers’ safety’.”
The 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 safety.
Senior advocate appearing for Air India opposed the plea during the hearing stating, “The airline has complied with every applicable safety norm in this regard.”
Unbiased regulatory oversight
Disposing of the plea, the bench said, “After 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 court’s 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 review.”
A senior DGCA official speaking to mid-day said, “On January 24, we (DGCA) slapped R1.1 crore fine on Air India for prima facie non-compliance 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 situation.” The official added, “As per the court directions, we (DGCA) will be looking into the matter again and will come to a proper unbiased conclusion.” Air India did not reply to the queries sent by mid-day till press time.
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