MUMBAI: Aviation regulator DGCA on Monday suspended the flying licence of Wings Aviation following the fatal accident of a Cessna 172 aircraft at Vikarabad in Telangana last week and a subsequent probe which found many deficiencies in its operations.
The two pilots of the academy--Amanpreet Kaur and Prakash Vishal--died on October 6 after their aircraft--headed from Begumpet in Telangana to Gobur in Karnataka, crashed in Sultanpur village of Vikarabad district amidst heavy rains.
"Wings Aviation failed to remain a safe, efficient and reliable organisation as required under the regulations. Therefore, the approval granted to it as a flying training organisation stands suspended from October 14," Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in its order on Monday.
Its licence was valid till October 26, 2020.
The suspension came in after DGCA issued a show cause notice to the academy on October 7 and subsequently inspection between October 11 and 12 and the institute's reply was found "unsatisfactory."
Though Wings has claimed incident/accident-free training for the past two decades, available information shows that its C 172 aircraft (registration no VT-RGE) had a propeller strike accident on April 29, 2019 and another Cessna VT-RGC met with an accident on November 21, 2018, the DGCA said in its order.
The inspection has also found several deficiencies such as solo flights not being operated as solo, lack of breath analyser tests and recording and non-incorporation of various temporary revisions in the service manual as issued by the OEM, among others, besides non-compliance of regulatory provisions, the DGCa said.