Exclusive: Air India warned for flying Airbus planes with unchecked escape slides
NEW DELHI, India: India’s aviation regulator has warned Air India for breaching safety rules after three of its Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab planes flew despite being overdue checks on emergency equipment, and for being slow to address the issue, government documents show.
The warning notices and an investigation report – both reviewed by Reuters – were not in any way related to last week’s crash of an Air India Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab 787-8 plane that killed all but one of the 242 people onboard, and were sent days before that incident.
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In the report, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said spot checks in May on three Air India Airbus planes found that they were operated despite mandatory inspections being overdue on the “critical emergency equipment” of escape slides.
In one case, the watchdog found that the inspection of an Airbus A320 jet was delayed by more than a month before being carried out on May 15. AirNav Radar data shows that during the delay the plane flew to international destinations such as Dubai, Riyadh and Jeddah.
Another case, involving an Airbus A319 used on domestic routes, showed checks were over three months late, while a third showed an inspection was two days late.
