DGCA lifts SpiceJet off surveillance list over improved financial posture
The airline had been under additional scrutiny due to financial issues and flight cancellations.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation will issue additional safety instructions either by tonight or tomorrow morning to all Indian airline operators in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed all 157 on board.
The aviation regulator said on Monday that it will seek information from Boeing as well as Jet Airways and SpiceJet, which operate the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
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The DGCA said that it is reviewing the matter regarding safety issues post the accident.
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On Sunday, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed 6 minutes after take-off from Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
A total of 149 passengers and 8 crew members from 35 countries were on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 when it ploughed into a field in Bishoftu (formerly Debre Zeit), a town located 48 kilometres south east of Addis Ababa.
It was expected to land at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 10:25 am local time.
Four Indians, including a UNDP consultant attached to India’s Environment Ministry, lost their lives in the crash.
Read More: Environment Min consultant among 4 Indians killed, China grounds Boeing 737 MAX 8
The deceased included 32 Kenyan, 18 Canadian, 9 Ethiopian, 8 Americans and Chinese each, and 7 each from French and UK besides many other nationalities. Nineteen passengers were members of the United Nations.
This was second time in less than six months that a brand-new Boeing aircraft crashed just minutes into a flight.
The last crash was of a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight, which went down over the Java Sea in late October killing all 189 people on board.
Following Sunday’s accident, Ethiopian Airlines grounded its entire Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet until further notice.
On Monday, China, too, grounded all of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a statement that all domestic Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets would be out of action for some time, due to its principle of “zero tolerance for safety hazards”.
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