India’s DGCA Launches Special Safety Audit for Flying Training Organisations
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India has initiated a comprehensive Special Safety Audit of all Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) across the country. The audit aims to thoroughly assess the safety standards, operational procedures, and systemic deficiencies within these organisations to ensure the highest levels of safety and compliance.
Audit Phases
The audit will be conducted in three phases from September to November 2024, covering a total of 33 FTOs. Phase 1 will cover 11 FTOs and will be conducted in September 2024. The last such special audit was conducted in 2022.
Reason for the Audit
This initiative follows a series of recent training aircraft incidents that have raised concerns about the compliance of training organisations with established aviation regulations and safety protocols.
Focus Areas
The special audit will scrutinise each FTO’s adherence to DGCA’s regulatory standards, including aircraft maintenance, airworthiness, and training operations. It will focus on various facets of an FTO’s operations, such as training curriculum, flying training imparted to student pilots, and the overall supervision and assessment mechanisms employed by FTOs to ensure that trainees meet the required standards of proficiency before being certified to fly independently.
Operational Oversight
The audit will also closely examine the operational oversight and maintenance protocols of the aircraft used for training purposes to ensure that all training aircraft are maintained to the highest standards, with no compromises on safety.
Recent Incident
On August 20, a training aircraft in Jamshedpur went missing after it took off from the Sonari airport. Search operations were launched in the Saraikela district and the neighbouring district of Purulia in West Bengal was also informed. The Jamshedpur administration immediately launched search operations.
Doubts Revealed
DGCA -: DGCA stands for Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It is the government body in India responsible for regulating civil aviation, which includes making sure that flying is safe.
Special Safety Audit -: A Special Safety Audit is a detailed check to make sure that everything is safe and working properly. In this case, it means checking the safety of flying schools.
Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) -: Flying Training Organisations, or FTOs, are schools where people learn how to fly airplanes. They teach future pilots how to operate aircraft safely.
Training aircraft incidents -: Training aircraft incidents are accidents or problems that happen with planes used for teaching new pilots. These incidents can be dangerous and need to be investigated to prevent them from happening again.
Aviation regulations -: Aviation regulations are rules made to ensure that flying is safe. These rules cover everything from how planes should be maintained to how pilots should be trained.
Training curriculum -: A training curriculum is a set of courses and lessons that students follow to learn something. In flying schools, it includes all the lessons and practice sessions needed to become a pilot.
Aircraft maintenance -: Aircraft maintenance is the regular check-up and repair of airplanes to make sure they are safe to fly. It includes fixing any problems and making sure all parts are working well.
Safety protocols -: Safety protocols are rules and procedures that need to be followed to keep everyone safe. In flying, this includes things like pre-flight checks and emergency procedures.