Amid safety concerns triggered by an incident in the US, Indian aviation regulator DGCA confirms satisfactory checks on Boeing B737-8 Max aircraft operated by Air India Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) assured on Monday that it has conducted satisfactory checks on Boeing B737-8 Max aircraft operated by Indian airlines. This comes in response to safety concerns arising after the grounding of planes in the US, where the door plug of an Alaska Airlines aircraft blew off post-takeoff on Friday, leading to flight cancellations. The focus of the checks was on the emergency exits of the wings, and examinations for 32 aircraft have been concluded.
These are the three airlines that operate the Max type.
As a preventive measure, the DGCA directed all Indian operators with Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft to ensure the proper operation and closure of all over wing emergency exits by January 7.
In response, the DGCA stated, "These checks have been satisfactorily performed on the operational fleet of Boeing B737-8 Max aircraft by Air India Express (4), Spicejet (8) and Akasa (20). Akasa Air fleet includes one B737-8 200 aircraft, on which the operational check has also been completed satisfactorily."
Akasa Air, in a statement on Monday, confirmed a thorough inspection of its entire fleet of in-service Boeing 737 Max aircraft, with no adverse findings. The airline further affirmed that there were no disruptions to its operations during this inspection period.
SpiceJet reported conducting a comprehensive examination of its Boeing 737 Max fleet in accordance with DGCA directives. The airline stated, "No adverse findings were identified during this inspection. Our flight operations remained unaffected and continued to operate as usual."
However, there has been no official comment from Air India Express regarding the inspection.