A team from aviation safety regulator Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducted a special audit of Chennai airport on Friday, sources said.
It was done in the wake of the crash-landing of the Air India Express flight from Dubai at Kozhikode during heavy rain on August 7 that left 19 dead and several passengers injured.
The DGCA team on Friday visited the airport and inspected the airside, including the main and secondary runways, and various equipment to see if there were any issues that needed to be fixed. “This inspection was done from a safety point of view. Some minor issues were observed during the inspection. But these can be resolved and they are not a major cause for concern,” a source said.
It was not clear what the minor issues were that need to be fixed.
The DGCA will finalise the report and its comments, which will be forwarded to New Delhi and the Airports Authorities of India (AAI) will be given the evaluation of the audit subsequently, sources said.
After that the DGCA’s recommendations will be implemented.
DGCA planned this audit for airports that were prone to be flooded during heavy rains. Chennai airport was closed during the 2015 December floods for several days.
A portion of the secondary runway of the airport is built across the Adyar river and aviation safety experts had raised concerns over its safety. Soon after that, experts from IIT Madras made many recommendations to prevent flooding of the airport, should the city witness a very heavy rainfall in future.
