DGCA suspended Patiala Aviation Club’s license, issued two warnings over safety lapses in past two years: MoCA

Vijay Mohan

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Chandigarh, December 14

Patiala Aviation Club (PAC), Punjab government’s flying training school, came on Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) radar thrice during the past two years over violation of safety standards, for which it had its license suspended once and received warning letters for other instances.

As many as 35 cases were reported from January 2021 to October 2022 where enforcement action was taken against aircraft operators and service providers on engineering and maintenance aspects, according to data placed before Parliament by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on December 12.

In the first instance, PAC had its license suspended for six months in 2021 on account of “irregularity found during releasing the aircraft and fuel upliftment,” details provided by the ministry reveal.

In the other two instances warning letters were issued to PAC for “failing to discharge the duties and responsibilities as an Accountable Manager,” and “failing to discharge the duties and responsibilities as Quality Manager.”

DGCA has an established system of conducting surveillance, spot checks and night surveillance to ensure safety of passengers and aircraft. The observations and findings made during such checks are also provided to the aircraft operators for taking corrective action at their end, which is reviewed later.

All occurrences and incidents concerning aircraft are mandatorily reported to DGCA, which are thoroughly analysed and their severity is determined. Special audits are also carried out as per the perceived safety risk.

Appropriate action as laid out in regulations is initiated in accordance with the severity of the incident, which may include warning, suspension or cancellation of licenses or financial penalty.

PAC is among the six flying training organisations in the country which feature in the ministry’s list against whom proactive action was initiated in the last two years for violation of safety standards. The others in the list include scheduled airlines, licensed aircraft operators and charter services, ground support agencies, engineering training and maintenance institutes.

There are a total of 34 DGCA approved flying training organisations in the country, out of which PAC is the only one in Punjab. Inaugurated in 1962, it has a base each in Patiala and Amritsar, which conduct training for grant of private and commercial pilot’s license along with running other aviation related courses.