Air India Express admits engine maintenance lapse after DGCA rap, says issue resolved

Following a sharp reprimand from India's aviation regulator DGCA, Air India Express on Friday admitted to an error in replacing engine parts on one of its Airbus A320 aircraft and said it has now fixed the issue, along with implementing corrective and preventive measures. 

In a statement shared with IANS, the airline said that an Airworthiness Directive (AD) issued in May 2023 by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was applicable to two engines in its inventory.

While the required change was carried out on one engine within the stipulated timeframe, the directive for the other was missed due to a record migration issue in the airline's monitoring software.

"Primarily on account of the migration of records on the monitoring software platform, the technical team missed the trigger for one engine," the airline said.

It added that the necessary changes were made "as soon as this was identified" and that compliance for the second engine was also completed within the deadline.

"We acknowledged the error to the DGCA and undertook remedial action and preventive measures with immediate effect. Necessary administrative actions were also taken against the persons held responsible," the statement said.

This response comes against the backdrop of a confidential DGCA memo, which accused Air India Express of failing to replace engine parts within the mandatory timeframe and allegedly altering maintenance records to show false compliance.

The violations were discovered during a routine DGCA audit in October 2024 and formally communicated to the airline in March this year.

The DGCA memo had flagged that the part modification "was not complied (with)" on one engine of an Airbus A320, within the required limits.

It also raised concerns over possible tampering of records in the airline’s Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Operating System (AMOS).

The safety lapse predates the tragic June crash of an Air India Dreamliner in Ahmedabad that killed 241 of the 242 people on board, the deadliest aviation disaster in a decade.

Air India Express, which is currently undergoing fleet expansion and integration with AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India), has reiterated its commitment to "the highest standards of safety and regulatory compliance".

Picture Courtesy: IANS