The death of a trainee aircraft engineer last month after the automatic doors of a SpiceJet plane snapped shut on him has led to the DGCA mandating rules for maximum working hours and rest periods for maintenance personnel like those for pilots and cabin crew to ensure fatigue and human errors don’t contribute to accidents and safety lapses.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday issued an advisory requiring that maintenance personnel not be made to work for more than 8-10 hours, which in case of exigencies can be extended to a maximum of 12 hours. The new rules also require that they do not work on more than two consecutive night shifts, which should be followed by two successive days of rest.
The DGCA said the rules will apply to technicians, inspectors, supervisors, managers, planners and persons working in maintenance control centres.
The norms, also called Duty Time Limitations, have so far been in place only for flying crew, which includes pilots and cabin crew.
The DGCA said there should be a minimum rest period of 11 hours between two shifts and the personnel should be given a break after a gap of every four hours and they should not work for more than 48 hours in seven days or 60 hours including overtime.
A senior DGCA official said these rules are being imposed after it was found that “engineers often work unduly long hours without breaks” and called it a ‘widespread’ problem. The official said in the case of the death of the trainee engineer last month, too, it was found that those on duty that night were overworked and were extremely stressed.
