Challenging previous orders passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has moved the green panel seeking a stay on its direction of issuing circulars to all airlines to ensure that toilet tanks are not emptied mid-air.
Contending that it was not possible to dump human waste mid-air, the DGCA in its plea said, “The aircraft system has three levels of in-built external protection for disposing the waste and under no circumstance release of waste during the flight is possible and there has been no such resort ever by the operators.”
Further, the plea read, “The modern day airline toilets are sealed and cannot be emptied in flight and toilet waste can only be disposed of by manual operation on ground during its servicing.”
The DGCA’s plea for a review of the previous orders, came after the green panel had earlier issued directions based on petitioner Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya’s claim that aircrafts were dumping human waste mid-air, which had landed on his house.
A bench headed by judicial member Raghuvendra Singh Rathore has sought a reply from Mr. Dahiya, based on the DGCA’s plea.
Following Mr. Dahiya’s plea, the NGT had constituted a committee comprising of representatives from the Central Pollution Control Board and the DGCA, to collect samples from the South Delhi residence and ascertain whether it was human waste or bird poop.
The tribunal in 2016 had said that an environmental compensation of ₹50,000 will be levied on airlines’ if they were found to be emptying toilet tanks mid-air.
However, the aviation regulator has maintained during the hearings, that it excreta on the residence was not human excreta.
