India Resolves ICAO Safety Concerns

The ICAO validation team submitted its report and recommendations to ICAO headquarters for the review by the ICAO SSC Validation Committee. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has conveyed that corrective action taken by India have successfully addressed and resolved two Significant Safety Concerns (SSC) relating to airworthiness and operations. Consequent to this decision, the Safety Concerns have been resolved and India no longer figures amongst the States with SSC on the ICAO website.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), during the ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission of India in December 2012, had identified two Significant Safety Concerns (SSC) relating to airworthiness and operations. The concern on airworthiness related to approval of major modifications and repairs carried out on foreign manufactured aircraft and registered in India while the concern on operations related to the procedure for grant of Air Operator Permit to non-scheduled operators and flight documentation system of scheduled airlines.

DGCA prepared a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) in January, 2013 to address the concerns and submitted the same to ICAO for their acceptance. On acceptance by ICAO, DGCA initiated action to implement the CAP to address both the Safety Concerns. Regular updates were provided to ICAO on the progress made on CAP implementation.

In June 2013, on completing substantial work, DGCA requested ICAO to send a Validation Team to assess the implementation of the CAP for resolving the SSC. A three member ICAO Team visited India from 19th to 23rd August, 2013 for the validation of the CAP implementation. During the visit, the team examined all documentary evidences at DGCA Headquarters and Regional Offices at Delhi and Mumbai. As part of the Validation process, the team also visited organizations to ascertain the safety oversight capability of DGCA with respect to implementation of CAP.