Recently, disruptions in IndiGo flights created problems for millions of passengers and shook the aviation sector. In response, the government has taken strong steps to prevent such issues in the future.
For the first time in India’s aviation sector, the entire system for monitoring technical faults has been completely overhauled.
Frequent flight delays, cancellations, and safety-related incidents in recent days have pushed the DGCA to strengthen the defect-reporting process.
Mandatory Investigation for 15-Minute Delays
According to a new 12-page order issued by the Centre, any scheduled flight delayed by 15 minutes or more due to technical reasons must now undergo a mandatory investigation.
Airlines must explain the exact cause of the delay and how the issue was fixed.
A detailed report must be submitted to the DGCA within 72 hours.
The airline must also mention what steps are being taken to ensure the same mistake does not happen again. These strict provisions were not part of the earlier rules.
Earlier, airlines only had to report major defects to the DGCA over the phone, followed by a written report within 72 hours. Now, the process has become much stricter.
Stronger Rules for Repeated Defects
The new rules also state that if a technical defect occurs three times, it will be labeled as a “repetitive defect.”
Such cases will trigger a separate, specialised investigation.
It is believed that the DGCA introduced these strict measures because the previous defect-reporting system was weak and did not require investigation for delays as short as 15 minutes.
