NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday said that it had found “no significant concern” from its review of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft plying with Indian airlines, but issued several supplementary safety conditions which airlines have to meet to continue operating the aircraft.
The DGCA’s circular comes in the wake of several airlines, and China, ordering the grounding of the model which was involved in the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash.
This was the second time a Boeing 737 MAX 8 had crashed in less than six months. Following this, Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered that all domestic Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes be grounded, followed by Indonesia. Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways also said they have grounded similar Boeing Jets.
India’s DGCA, however, said “the issue has been reviewed today along with the Indian operators covering all reported snags/defects of significant nature along with rectification action(s) taken on these aircraft... During the review, it was observed that the ‘Daily Defect’ and ‘Daily Incident’ reports contained defects of routine nature and no significant concern were observed”.
However, the aviation regulator said that pilots who pilot the craft will now require at least 1,000 hours of flying experience, and 500 hours for co-pilots. Apart from this, the DGCA also laid down conditions which the maintenance and engineering teams have to ensure before releasing the aircraft for operations.
The crew on these flights will also have to be trained as advised by a circular it had put out following the Lion Air crash last year. The Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight went down over the Java Sea last October, killing all 189 people on board.In response to the grounding, Boeing said in a statement that it has no basis to issue new guidance to operators based on information available so far in the Ethiopian Airlines crash investigation.
No significant concerns
Several airlines, and China, has ordered grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, which was involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash
In India, SpiceJet and Jet Airways operate the Boeing aircraft
DGCA and Indian operators reviewed the snags
They said ‘Daily Defect’ and ‘Daily Incident’ reports contained defects of routine nature and observed no significant concern