NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has taken four of its Flight Operations Inspectors (FOIs) off duty, holding them responsible for the Indigo flight disruptions, marking the first government officials to be removed amid the massive air travel chaos across the country.
Three of the officials were consultants hired on a contract basis, while one was a Senior FOI.
An order signed on Thursday (December 11) by Sunil Singh Rawat, Deputy Director of Administration, DGCA, stated, “The following FOIs under various categories, on contract basis, in DGCA are hereby relieved from DGCA with immediate effect to join their respective parent organisations.” The order named Rish Raj Chatterjee (Consultant working as Deputy Chief Operations Inspector), Seema Jhamnani (Senior FOI), Anil Kumar Pokahriyal and Priyam Kaushik (both Consultant FOI).
A DGCA source told this reporter, “These four were assigned by the DGCA exclusively for Indigo to ensure it was complying with the regulations. They were supposed to monitor the daily affairs of Indigo on a daily basis.” The source added that their failure to perform their duties resulted in lakhs of passengers being affected by the cancellation of thousands of flights from December 1 to 9.
IndiGo, meanwhile, said it operated over 2,050 flights on Friday, marking the first time its operations crossed the 2,000 mark since the disruptions began in December.
IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers appeared before the DGCA’s investigation panel on Friday afternoon. Sources chose to remain tight-lipped about the meeting.
Earlier in the day, IndiGo announced that it had appointed Chief Aviation Advisors LLC, led by veteran aviation expert Captain John Illson, to conduct an independent review and assessment of the recent operational disruption and contributing factors. This follows a recommendation by the Crisis Management Group constituted by IndiGo after the crisis. “The objective is to conduct an independent root cause analysis of the recent operational disruption besides identifying opportunities for improvement,” the release said.
“The independent expert reviewer will submit a comprehensive report to the Board upon completion,” the statement added.