In the interest of passenger safety, the Bombay high court on Friday directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ascertain whether all the A320neo aircraft powered by Pratt and Whitney, operational in India, are safe for flight operations.
The direction by a bench of justices Naresh Patil and Girish Kulkarni came on a public interest litigation by Harish Agrawal in the aftermath of European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) directing A320neos fitted with twoPW1100 engines with serial number 450 and beyond be grounded, while those with only one affected engine can fly.
The petitioner urged for grounding all A320neos of Indigo and Go Air. Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, representing Indigo, informed that Delhi HC in a petition urging grounding of all aircraft having PW 1100 engines has declined to grant such extreme relief. DGCA’s advocate Advait Seth told HC that the regulator had conducted its own independent study and in the interest of safety decided that aircraft with engines beyond serial number 450 be grounded. He said 14 A320neos were grounded pursuant to the decision.
Petitioner’s advocate Anirudh Deo argued that the remaining A320neo aircraft also must be grounded. If not, the DGCA must be directed to give a statement that all A320neos with PW1100 engines are airworthy. “At the inception there should be zero engine fault. They say it is reduced. They admit reduction in failure,” said Deo.
The judges termed it a “genuine concern” and again quizzed DGCA. Its advocate Advait Sethna said, “There is no problem in pre-450- engines. Problem is there is post 450.” The judges pointed out EASA has not given a clean chit as the issue is under consideration. “You must go back to EASA and get a clarification if pre-450 is also airworthy,’’ said Justice Patil. The judges said DGCA must also approach its own experts to state if the engines were airworthy as per Indian conditions. The judges granted DGCA a week.
When Sethna sought four weeks, the judges reminded him of the urgency. “It’s an urgent matter. Instead of delaying, take action,’’ said Justice Patil, adding that if the airline suffers, then passengers suffer.
Jayant Sinha, minister for state, civil aviation, tweeted: “With 17 engines (14 aircraft) grounded, imp to note it is about 2% of capacity. With two planes coming in every week, we expect supply-demand to be back in balance quickly. Fares have not seen any meaningful spike. Safety comes first!”.
IndiGo in a statement said: “We would like to assure that between 96% and 98% of our flights are operating as usual. On any given day we cancel less than 4% of flights.”
