The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has identified 51 safety lapses in Air India, such as insufficient training for some of its pilots, utilization of unauthorized simulators and rostering system.
The lapses have been listed in an 11-page confidential audit report drawn up by the aviation regulator this month, Reuters said. Air India remains silent on the report.
But the report is a component of an annual audit and is unrelated to the investigation into the fatal Boeing 787-8 crash earlier this month.
The DGCA audit report stated that seven "Level I" major infractions had to be addressed by July 30 and 44 other non-compliances categorized had to be addressed by August 23, the report stated.
The report came just a month after Air India's Boeing 787-8 plane, heading to London, crashed in Ahmedabad and claimed 260 lives. The annual audit was unrelated to the probe into the fatal crash.
The officials at DGCA claimed that they discovered "recurring training deficiencies" in certain Boeing 787 and 777 pilots, who had not finished their shadowing responsibilities, where they are forced to watch the operation of instruments in the cockpit before they become eligible to fly.
The report also identified operation and safety hazards and stated that Air India did not make "proper route assessments" for a few Category C airports, which have challenging topography or layout. The airliner only provided stimulator training for those airfields, which falls short of qualification standards, the report further said.
"This may account to non-consideration of safety risks during approaches to challenging airports," Reuters quoted the DGCA audit report as saying.
The latest report follows a week after DGCA served four show cause notices to Air India for several violations of cabin crew rest, duty norms, training regulations and operating procedures.
The show cause notices by the DGCA followed the airline's self-reporting of the violations on June 20 and 21.
The warnings mentioned 29 violations, which included pilots not having been provided mandatory rest, poor training compliances and insufficient training for a high-altitude airport, Reuters reported.
Reacting to the fresh report, Air India reportedly said it was "fully transparent" during the audit and that it will "submit its response to the regulator within the stipulated time frame, along with the details of the corrective actions".
