The DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has issued a show cause notice to budget carrier SpiceJet airline over unusually high incidents of malfunction. The regulator said that the airline has failed to establish safe, efficient and reliable air services under Aircraft Rules, 1937.
DGCA has pointed out that the airline is operating flights with degraded safety margins, poor internal safety oversight, not paying vendors on time, leading to shortage of spare parts for the SpiceJet. The DGCA notice said “SpiceJet is operating its fleet on MEL (Minimum Equipment List) which means the aircraft is considered safe to fly but not all systems are necessarily operational”.
SpiceJet said its freighter aircraft which was heading to Chongqing in China, returned to Kolkata when pilots realised after takeoff that its weather radar was not working. That was 8th incident of technical malfunction happened on a SpiceJet aircraft in the last 18 days.
