Kingfisher to return aircrafts

India's Kingfisher Airlines Ltd plans to return some aircraft voluntarily to lessors after defaulting on payments and has seen a fresh exodus of pilots, local media reported. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the struggling carrier to explain why it has cancelled a large number of flights since Saturday. Kingfisher will return two more Airbus A320s this month to their lessors, as their leases have been terminated because of payment defaults.

Of the 64 planes in its fleet, Kingfisher is using just over a dozen to operate flights currently. The Times of India newspaper said that 35 of Kingfisher's A320 commanders quit the airline on February 14, followed by another over the weekend. In all, about 300-350 pilots have quit the airline in the last six months, it said, without citing any sources. Kingfisher, controlled by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, has cancelled 32 out of the 240 flights that it operates each day, the airlines said on Saturday, adding that it expected to return to full service within days.

Indigo's troubled lady pilot arrested for forging her Licence

A woman pilot has been arrested in the capital for allegedly using a forged marksheet of the DGCA test to procure a commercial pilot licence. Parminder Kaur Gulati, a suspended pilot of Indigo, was apprehended by a team of Delhi Police's crime branch yesterday following investigations into a complaint filed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Gulati allegedly produced the forged marksheets of DGCA Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) test to get the commercial pilot licence. With ATPL, one can become a co-pilot; and to get a full-fledged commercial pilot licence one should have ATPL with adequate flying hours.

Sources said Gulati had allegedly produced forged marksheets of the ATPL examination conducted by the DGCA. She holds a valid commercial pilot licence. Last year, during a flight landing in Goa by Gulati, technical errors were noticed and DGCA had constituted an enquiry to look into it. Sources said, during investigations it came to light that Gulati had allegedly forged marksheets of the ATPL examination, following which she was suspended by the airlines.

India to celebrate Civil Aviation Centenary Year

India will observe the year beginning February 18, 2011 as the Civil Aviation Centenary Year.On this date in 1911, the first commercial plane flew in India between Allahabad and Naini. An official press release said here today that, during these 100 years, India had become the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world and is now poised to become one of the three largest markets in the world by 2020. The release said the Ministry of Civil Aviation has set up a high-level committee chaired by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to deliberate on the scale and modalities of the celebrations. The committee includes former Civil Aviation Ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Yadav, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shahnawaz Hussain and Anant Kumar; eminent Indians who have contributed to Indian civil aviation like Mr. Rakesh Sharma, first Indian cosmonaut, Mr. Vijaypath Singhania, Air Marshal Arjan Singh, Ms. Saudamini Deshmukh, the first lady pilot in the commander’s seat in India, Mr Satish Sharma, MP and Chairman of Aeroclub of India, Captain G. Gopinath, Mr Dipinder Hooda, MP, Mr Naveen Jindal, MP, Secretaries of the Ministries of Civil Aviation, Defence and Tourism, Chairpersons of all Indian airlines, Chairpersons of all Indian airports, CMD Pawan Hans, Chairman ISRO, representatives of Tour and Travel Operators, eminent pilots, representatives of IGRUA, NFTI, NAL, HAL, BCAS, DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The release said the committee would deliberate upon the period of celebrations, formulate an action plan for the entire year, decide on events which may be undertaken during the centenary year, decide on locations for these events, co-opt members to broaden the membership base, locate appropriate budgetary sources to finance the celebrations, assign responsibilities to individuals and institutions for the organization of events, and constitute Organizing Committees for conduct of events. Activities likely to be taken up during the year include air shows, establishment of an air and space theme park or museum, release of a postage stamp by the President, issue of commemorative coins, publication of a coffee table book, establishment of an aviation university, exhibitions, felicitation of eminent people, institution of annual civil aviation awards and air craft modeling competitions for students. The private sector, which is a make stakeholder in the civil aviation sector, will be major partners in the celebrations, the release added.

DGCA probes for an investigation for the accident at IGI International airport Delhi

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Air India management have instituted independent inquiries into the freak accident at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, where the nose wheel of an aircraft ran over and crushed the right foot and left thigh bone of a senior technician, on Sunday night. Raj Kishore (45) was operated on on Monday morning and is reportedly out of danger. The Delhi Police is also investigating the matter and has registered a case. Kishore’s statement to the police and independent versions of various airport officials, however, point to a communication gap between the pilot and technician that reportedly caused the accident.  In his statement, Kishore, who has over 20 years of experience, said the incident was an accident because of a communication gap. According to airline officials, the technician guides the pilot on movement on the ground. “It looks like a communication error between the pilot and the technician. At the time of pushback, Kishore fell and the front wheel of the aircraft ran over his leg,” an Air India spokesperson was reported saying this to media.

DGCA tightens norms for charter operators

In order to improve safety standards, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has doubled the paid up capital that non-scheduled air transport operators would have to maintain to run chartered services. Earlier, the paid up capital that operators needed to maintain for a fleet of three aircraft (helicopters or planes) was Rs 1 crore. Now they would need to show the DGCA a minimum balance of Rs 2 crore to maintain a fleet of two aircraft.

Mumbai has one of the largest helicopter bases at the Juhu airport and a significant number of chartered services operate out of the city. According to a DGCA official, this move is to ensure that operators who are in the non-scheduled air transport business are serious about safety standards. DGCA wants to ensure that operations are financially viable and that operator does cut corners and compromise safety. Often people just import machines and start these services, we want them to be financially healthy.  The DGCA has however exempted gliders, hot air balloons, airships and Microlights from this rule. A hot air balloon, for instance, would cost less than Rs 50 lakh and it would be non-viable for a chartered service to keep aside a minimum of Rs 2 crore for a machine of Rs 50 lakh. 

 Some operators however feel that even these norms are 'stringent' for helicopters and airplanes and that it may hit expansion plans in future. “Expansion plans of some operators may be hit. Operators may need to procure an additional aircraft to break even, but it would be difficult with the increased paid up capital they would have to show,” said R N Johri, MD of Aman Aviation and Aerospace Solutions. “It will also be tougher for individuals and small players to start their chartered services,” said Captain Vijay Madan, managing director of AAA Aviation, at the Juhu airport.

Kingfisher on board oneworld

India's only five star Airliner Kingfisher is now officially a part of oneworld alliance. After been invited by the one world group and also asked to take the clearance from the Director General of Civil Aviation in India, the airliner has managed to join hands with oneworld. The DGCA has given the airliner a go ahead with this process. The chairman of Kingfisher airlines Mr. Vijay Mallya had expressed that he was very happy to be invited to join hands with oneworld and to be apart of this means a lot to kingfisher fliers, now the airliner will have 800 new destination across 150 countries.
With the new international terminal to be inaugurated in a short span of time from now at New Delhi, the one world group operating to the Indian capital can now share the Kingfisher's premium lounge to their premier flier's as well. The code sharing between the member airlines of oneworld is also under way.

Exapt pilot's medical reqirments in India - a cause of worry

The crash of the Air India Express flight IX 812 at Mangalore International airport has brought the DGCA's medical requirement for expat pilots in the country is under the scanner. It seems like the Indian pilots are put under a very strict medical requirement to fly for airliners, on the other hand DGCA does not force the expat pilots to prove the medical fitness at the same standards as the Indian pilots are asked to do.
There have been few incidents involving expat pilots which is scary. There was a French national who was flying with Jet Airways and had collapsed at his hotel room just after his duty, in another terrifying case a first officer had to take control of the flight as the expat captain had become unconscious all in a sudden, lucky that the first officer was quick to act and he had landed the aircraft safely.
In another incident involving a South African pilot were he was arrested by the cops at Dubai, his wife had claimed that the pilot was suffering from hyper tension and diabetes which pose a high risk for pilots.
Was it something like this that caused the fatal Mangalore crash? Is DGCA gonna be sticking with the same relaxed requirement for expat pilots? Will there be another crash same as the Mangalore, if the captain's health had played a vital role in this crash. Will these questions be answered by the DGCA?

Crew highly experienced on flight 812 - AI chief

What went wrong with the Air India Express flight IX 812 is still a mystery as the DGCA has started probing into the accident. Expertise from Boeing and the NTSB  has been sought to help the investigation. There have been rumors that the pilots did have enough training to fly into the tricky runway of Mangalore. The Air India chief had called for press meeting earlier this evening and had clarified that those were just rumors.
He claimed that the Cockpit crew had enough rest as per the DGCA regulations and he had proof for the same. He also dismissed that the pilots did not have enough training, he said that the Captain had flown in and out of Mangalore several times and infact he had completed 19 successful landings at the same runway and the first officer had made 66 landings in the same runway. The crew was highly experienced, the Captain had more than 10,000 flying hours under his belt and the first officer had more than 3,000 hours of flying experience.

He refused to comment on the speculation that the aircraft might have touched down way beyond the touch down zone which made it hard for the crew to stop it within the available runway. He has asked the media "not to speculate any such thing as the investigation team is probing into the accident and lets wait patiently for them to come up with the cause of accident." The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) will play a vital role in finding the cause for the fatal crash killing more than 150 with just 7 survivors, as the FDR can give important information on what the aircraft systems were doing during the final seconds and the CVR could explain what the crew was going through before the tragedy. This could explain was it a human error or a mechanical/electrical or any sort of catastrophic failure that had caused the crash.  

Pilots to practice in simulated rain

The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India has called upon all airlines and airline pilot to go through a simulated rain training. This additional simulator training is to handle adverse weather condition, a move aimed to improve passenger safety in monsoon. Despite issuing such instructions every year the airlines in India have not seemed to implement it yet, said a DGCA spokesmen hence forth this has been made mandatory from this year and has to be followed strictly regardless of what ever the pilots previous flying experience is, and special attention should be paid to first time commanders during monsoon.

Crack discovered inside the Emirates plane

The DGCA has found cracks inside the Emirates flight that took a plunge on sunday loosing almost 18,500 feet.
The flight which was carrying 350 passengers and 14 crew was hit by a Clear Air Turbulence (CAT). The incident had almost lasted for 15 seconds, the investigators in this incident think that the gravitational force and the oscillation the B777 experienced during the CAT might be the key reason for the cracks developed.

Emirates Kochi flight had a close call

A major air disaster was on the cards on Sunday morning, thanks to the pilot. A B777 Emirates flight bound to Kochi from Dubai with 350 passengers and 14 crew on board was hit by an air pocket. Passengers and the crew on board suffered anxious moments, it is learnt that the plane hit an air pocket at 20,000 feet and it went into a free fall and lost 18,500 feet before the pilot could regain controls of the aircraft at 1500 feet AGL and landed the aircraft safely at Kochi Intl airport.
The DGCA has launched an inquiry into the incident and has also grounded the aircraft. All passengers where examined by doctors at the Kochi airport and it was reported that 23 passengers were injured.