The airlines regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Friday, imposed a financial penalty of Rs 30 lakh on IndiGo airlines for four tail strike incidents.
These incidents happened within a span of six months this year.
As per the reports, DGCA conducted a special audit of IndiGo to examine the company’s documentation and procedures pertaining to the operations, training, engineering, and flight data management (FDM) programme.
The audit highlighted the deficiency in the training and engineering procedure of IndiGo.
Following this, DGCA issued a show cause notice to the airlines, instructing them to submit their response within the specified timeframe.
The regulator didn’t find the reply satisfactory and directed the airline to make necessary amendments to their documents and procedures to comply with the DGCA requirements and the guidelines provided by the original equipment manufacturers (OEM).
It is to be noted that since last April, as many as eight tail strike incidents were reported on IndiGo’s A321s.
A tail strike occurs when the aft fuselage (tail) of an airplane comes in contact with the runway during takeoff or landing.