DGCA suspends licence of GoAir's aircraft maintenance engineer

Aviation regulator DGCA has suspended the licence of an aircraft maintenance engineer of GoAir for failing to detect a fault and clearing the aircraft which had to make an emergency landing at the Delhi airport.

A Bengaluru-bound GoAir flight, carrying around 190 people, made an emergency landing due to technical issues on February 8.

According to a senior DGCA official, there were problems with the magnetic plug attached to the main gear box but the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) did not notice it and the flight was cleared for operations.

He noted that in such conditions, the aircraft should not be operated but the engineer concerned did not read the trouble shooting manual.

The plane had almost completed the earlier permitted flying period of ten hours when it started for Bengaluru and without noticing that, the AME had cleared it for further journey, the official added.

"Due to wrong action on the part of AME, DGCA suspended his licence yesterday pending investigation," he said.

Providing a brief chronology, the official said prior to its flight from Delhi to Bengaluru, there were some issues with this particular aircraft. Earlier, after one hour of its journey from Mumbai to Delhi, there was low oil pressure indication and chip warning.

However, there was no such warning later and the same plane flew to Leh but came back to Delhi due to bad weather.

Then, the aircraft was operated from Delhi to Guwahati and made return journey.

Subsequently, after these flights, the aircraft made emergency landing after taking off to Bengaluru on February 8.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) would be analysing the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFRD) to gather more information and depending on the findings there could be more regulatory actions, the official noted.

There was no immediate comment from GoAir.

The plane involved was an A320 neo having Pratt & Whitney engine.

The DGCA official said the regulator is already in touch Pratt & Whitney seeking more data about the engine.

"We have sought data... Failure of main gear box is for the first time. We are getting the worldwide data and also getting our data," he added.