The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States of America has found India fully compliant with international safety standards after an audit done by it.
The FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment team revisited India to confirm and validate the action taken on earlier concerns since an audit in March 2009.
"Based on the discussions held and the information shared, FAA, at the close of the discussion, informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of being in compliance with international standards for aviation safety and reported India to continue to be maintained in Category-I. This determination will be made public under FAA public disclosure policy," said a release from the aviation ministry here.
Category-I status means Indian airlines can expand operations in the US, get new points of call and share codes.
The DGCA had addressed issues like issuing detailed technical guidance material, ensuring availability of technical manpower, training of personnel, surveillance over flight operations, evolution of surveillance programmes and surveillance of foreign airlines. The FAA's March audit was concerned at the state of affairs on these points.
It had developed new manuals to provide technical guidance. Technical manpower is to be strengthened by over 500 personnel and the non-technical side by over 150. Currently, there are 160 technical staff. The authority has also imparted training to 95 officers by sending them to countries like the US and Singapore. The numbers of officers to conduct surveillance of flights have been increased from four in March to 302.
Among other initiatives, the aviation regulator has started an annual surveillance programme and till August they had done 2,500 surveillances and plan to do 4,000 more. They have also created a board for aviation safety and took action in 87 cases for non-compliance of the regulations.
The regulator has raised the penalty for breach to Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) or a jail term of two years for the official concerned in the relevant airline. Under the IASA programme, FAA in the year 1997 had conducted an audit and had awarded Category-I to India. This March, FAA, based on the report of an audit conducted by International Civil Aviation Organisation in October 2006, conducted a reassessment of DGCA.
In the March audit, while the FAA's IASA team found India to be compliant in areas of aviation legislation, operating regulations, civil aviation structure and safety oversight functions, and licensing and certification obligations, it raised concerns in the areas of adequate technical guidance for DGCA inspectors, hiring and retaining technical personnel in DGCA, establishment of an on-going surveillance programme of air operators and the resolution of identified safety issues. These have now been met.
