Jyotiraditya Scindia tells airlines to ramp up safety oversight

Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held one-on-one meetings with chiefs of Indian carriers on Monday, asking them to ramp up safety oversight, sources said.

There have been multiple technical malfunction incidents in Indian carriers' planes during the last one month.

Scindia told each airline to take all necessary steps that are needed to ramp up safety oversight, the sources said.

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Scindia had on Sunday held a meeting on safety issues with senior officials of his ministry and regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

During the Sunday meeting, the minister had taken a detailed report from officials about the incidents over the last one month and told them that there should be no compromise over passengers' safety.

On Sunday, IndiGo's Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as a precautionary measure after pilots observed a defect in one of the engines.

On Saturday night, the Calicut-Dubai flight of the Air India Express was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was observed in the cabin mid-air.

A day earlier an alive bird was found in the cockpit of the Air India Express Bahrain-Kochi flight.

SpiceJet is under regulatory scanner right now. On July 6, the DGCA issued a show-cause notice to SpiceJet following at least eight incidents of technical malfunction in its aircraft since June 19.

The DGCA is currently investigating all these incidents.