DGCA begins special safety audit of IndiGo, Vistara to assess safety mechanism

Mumbai: Aviation regulator DGCA has commenced special safety audit of IndiGo and Vistara as part of its ongoing exercise to review and assess safety mechanism across domestic airlines in the wake of the recent Air India Express plane crash, a top official has said.
The special safety audit of the two airlines, which began from Tuesday, will be conducted across their bases, said the official.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already completed a similar exercise on Ajay Singh-owned private carrier SpiceJet and state-run Air India, as per the official.

"We are now conducting the special safety audit of IndiGo and Vistara from Tuesday after completing it on Air India and SpiceJet," the official told PTI.

A Vistara spokesperson confirmed the developments without elaborating.

However, both IndiGo Chief Operating Officer Wolfgang Prock-Schaeur and its head of Corporate Communication C Leekha did not respond to a PTI query on this issue despite several reminders.

Days after an Air India Express aircraft accident in early August, the DGCA had announced a complete FOQA (Flight Operations Quality Assurance) audit of all domestic carriers.

The accident took place as a Boeing 737 with 190 people on board overshot the runway and crashed at the Kozhikode airport amid heavy rains, killing 18 people including the pilots.

The FOQA is the process of obtaining and analysing all kinds of data from flights to improve the safety and efficiency of future flight operations.

The DGCA started the audit exercise in a phased manner from August 20.

"The safety audit of IndiGo and Vistara will go on for 2-3 days and will be conducted across all their bases," the official said.

The DGCA official also said the safety issues came across during audit of SpiceJet and Air India have been communicated to them and they have been directed to fix those issues.

He, however, refused to divulge further details on the outcome of the audit.