The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is monitoring the performance of Boeing 737 MAX planes on a daily basis ever since the aircraft variant of Lion Air crashed over a month ago off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia.
A DGCA official said that the aviation watchdog had also prepared a standard operation procedure in consultation with airlines that needed to be followed in case there was a problem reported with a device that generated an alert in case of an engine stall or drop in speed. A training module is also being developed for pilots operating the MAX planes.
Indian carriers Jet Airways and SpiceJet have 10 Boeing 737 Max planes between them.
The airlines would have to report any problem related to the plane’s Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), the DGCA official said.
Airlines have also been asked to land at the nearest airport if they come across any issues with the system during flight and maintain a record of steps taken by the pilots in such a situation as well.
If an issue with MCAS was noticed and rectified, the airline would have to conduct a ‘verification flight’ before that plane was pressed into normal operations, the official added.
The official also made it clear that so far there had been no issues with these planes operating in the country.
Jet schedule okayed
The DGCA has approved the flight schedule for beleaguered Jet Airways for five months, according to a senior official.
The airline has been grappling with financial woes and has delayed salary payments of its employees. This has also led the airline to cancel many flights after some of the pilots reported “sick” over non-payment of their dues.
Online check-in fee rolled back
IndiGo and SpiceJet have withdrawn the web check-in fee that was being levied for all seats on their aircraft, according to a senior DGCA official. Both airlines announced on Twitter last month that there would be a fee for an online check-in. The Hindu had first reported that the Ministry of Civil Aviation had asked the airlines to withdraw the fee on the ground that passengers should be given an incentive for skipping queues at airports, which also helped airlines cut down on manpower.
