DGCA imposes Rs 10 lakh fine on Vistara for violating safety norms

The DGCA imposed a fine of 10 lakh on Vistara for letting improperly trained pilot land flight in Indore endangering the lives of passengers

New Delhi:The Civil aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Air Vistara for violating safety regulations. “Aviation regulator DGCA has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Vistara for letting an improperly trained pilot land an aircraft with passengers on board at the Indore airport,” officials said on Tuesday.

The airline has been fined for violation of takeoff and landing clearance given to first officers without conducting any training. "This was a serious violation endangering lives of the passengers on board," officials noted. Training is conducted for the first officer to land the aircraft in the simulator before they can do it with an actual aircraft that has passengers on board. In the same way, a captain is also similarly trained in a simulator before they can give landing instructions to the first officer.

The aircraft was landed by the first officer without the captain or the first officer trained in a simulator, which is a serious violation endangering the lives of the passengers on board, the result of which was the airline regulator fined the airline for this lackadaisical approach.

In the past few days, the airline regulator, the DGCA has been taking appropriate actions for the violation or misconduct. On May 30, the DGCA imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh fine on SpiceJet for training 737 Max aircraft pilots on a faulty simulator. Similarly, the DGCA on Saturday imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on IndiGo Airline for denying boarding to a specially-abled child at Ranchi airport on May 7.