Indian aviation regulator DGCA has barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from flying Boeing 737 MAX planes after faults were detected at the simulator centre for training. The pilots will have to be retrained, the regulator has ordered.
This comes within eight months of the DGCA lifting a ban on Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. While it was grounded worldwide from March 2019 to December 2020 following two crashes — in Indonesia and Ethiopia — killing 346, DGCA lifted the ban much later in August 2021.
The faults were found during a surveillance check by the regulator at the Greater Noida-based facility of CAE Simulation Training Pvt Ltd (CSTPL), which is a joint venture between IndiGo promoter Rahul Bhatia’s Interglobe Enterprise and Canada-based flight simulator company CAE.
