DGCA fines Air India Rs 1.10 crore for deploying aircraft with less emergency-use oxygen reserve

DGCA says Air India's leased Boeing 777 plane few to the US without having the required system of emergency oxygen supply.

The DGCA on January 24 said it has initiated enforcement action and imposed a penalty of Rs 1.10 crore on Air India over allegations of safety violations of flights on certain long-range terrain critical routes.

In a statement, the aviation regulator noted that Air India's leased Boeing 777 plane few to the US without having the required system of emergency oxygen supply.

The decision comes after the civil aviation ministry and the DGCA took a into a complaint filed against Air India by a former senior pilot alleging that the airline operated Boeing 777 planes to the US without having the required system of emergency oxygen supply, DGCA officials said.

The pilot, who had served as a B777 commander, complained about the practice to the ministry and the DGCA on October 29. The pilot is no longer with the airline.

Most aircraft have cylinders to supply oxygen to overhead masks that deploy in case of cabin de-pressurisation for 12-15 minutes per passenger.

This time is enough for planes for descend to 10,000 feet after which they are in an ambient environment safe for humans. At that altitude air is fed from the engine for cooling the aircraft and breathing.

However, aircraft overflying high mountains can descend to 10,000 feet only after clearing the range. Which means they need to fly for much longer at higher altitude, and that requires extra cylinders on aircraft to supply oxygen to overhead passenger masks for 25-30 minutes.

AI nonstops between Delhi and Europe and most North American cities overfly the mighty Hindu Kush range to bypass Afghan airspace ever since the same was closed for civilian traffic over two years back.

The airline’s old Boeing 777s have an extra oxygen cylinder and regularly take this route. Recently AI took more B777s that do not have the extra cylinder and are okay to fly between west and south India and North America as those flights do not overfly the Hindu Kush.

"The matter in question is multi-dimensional and has already been examined by Air India and external experts. We will restrain from offering any comment on this specific case but we wish to reiterate that the safety of our passengers and crew is our foremost priority and there is no compromise on the same," an Air India spokesperson had said in November.

In the complaint, the pilot also claimed that he had refused to operate a leased B777 aircraft for the Air India flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru on January 30 2023 due to the issue with the oxygen system.

Three months later, the pilot in the complaint said that he was terminated from the service by the airline, as per the complaint.

“The peaks in Hindu Kush ranges are 19,000-26,000 feet high. In case of cabin de-pressurisation while overflying them, aircraft need to fly for 22-30 minutes before they can descend to 10,000 feet and head to a safe alternate airport like Tashkent. This protocol was devised by AI about two years back when the Afghan airspace was closed for civilian overflying. Deploying an aircraft to overfly the Hindu Kush that does not have the mandatory extra oxygen supply is a serious oversight,” industry experts said.

For the high terrain Hindukush route, AI had in 2021 carried out preparations through extra simulator drills, trial runs and special precautions to be taken.

This is the seventh fine Air India has been issued by the DGCA in the last 12 months. The airline has been fined around Rs 2.5 crore in the last 12 months for various fines including a Rs 10 lakh fine last week for failure to comply with rules about facilities that are required to be provided to passengers.