SpiceJet 'failing to establish' safe and reliable services: DGCA issues show cause notice
SpiceJet
India's Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a show-cause notice to the SpiceJet airline on Wednesday (July 6) after it made multiple emergency landings in the past couple of months. The SpiceJet airline has failed to establish a safe air service due to degradation of safety margin, which is quite evident after several flights were forced to make priority landings.
In a tweet, India's Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia said: "Passenger safety is paramount. Even the smallest error hindering safety will be thoroughly investigated & course-corrected".
The DGCA pointed out several instances of SpiceJet's aircraft returning to its originating station or landing at the destination with a degraded safety margin or making an emergency landing at a different location.
In its notice, the regulator said these are due to "poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions".
The Indian aviation sector regulator said as per the financial assessment carried out by it in September 2021, SpiceJet has been on a 'cash and carry system' by its vendors. It means they were not being paid on regular basis resulting in a shortage of spares.
The aviation regulator has given three weeks to SpiceJet to respond as to why action should not be taken against it.
On July 5, a Dubai-bound SpiceJet flight made an emergency landing in Pakistan's Karachi. Officials of the aviation regulator DGCA said that the flight was diverted to Karachi as the fuel indicator started malfunctioning.
On the same day, another snag occurred as one more flight made a priority landing in Mumbai. The SpiceJet spokesperson said that the SpiceJet Q400 aircraft was operating SG 3324 (Kandla - Mumbai). During the cruise at FL230, the P2 side windshield outer pane cracked.
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