The Directorate General of Civil Aviation instructs Air India to promptly initiate internal disciplinary proceedings against officials
The Week: June 21, 2025 : India’s civil aviation regulator DGCA, in an order dated June 20, instructed Air India to remove three officials— including a divisional vice president—from “all roles and responsibilities related to crew scheduling and rostering”, agencies reported. This comes barely a week after the London Gatwick-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed near Ahmedabad Airport on June 12, killing all but one onboard and several others at the crash site.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation also ordered the Tata Group-owned air carrier to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the officials.
“Whereas, repeated and serious violations voluntarily disclosed by [Air India] concerning flight crew being scheduled and operated despite lapses in licensing, rest, and recency requirements. These violations were discovered during the post-transition review from ARMS to the CAE Flight and Crew Management System,” read the DGCA order.
The airline on Saturday said that it followed the DGCA order. “We acknowledge the regulator’s directive and have implemented the order,” said an Air India spokesperson.
“In the interim, the company’s Chief Operations Officer will provide direct oversight to the Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC). Air India is committed to ensuring that there is total adherence to safety protocols and standard practices,” the Tata Group-owned carrier added.
“Key recovery work, including site documentation and evidence collection, has been completed, and further analysis is now underway,” the ministry said.
Earlier this week, reports suggested that India was gearing up to send the black box recovered from the crash site in Ahmedabad to the US for a detailed examination. Sources stated that the black box sustained heavy external damage from the post-crash fire, rendering data extraction in India impossible.
“It has been reported in certain media outlets that the CVR/DFDR from the ill-fated AI171 flight is being sent abroad for retrieval and analysis. The decision regarding the location for decoding the flight recorders will be taken by the AAIB after due assessment of all technical, safety, and security considerations. The Ministry of Civil Aviation urge all stakeholders to refrain from speculation on such sensitive matters and to allow the investigative process to proceed with the seriousness and professionalism it warrants,” the ministry stated.
The Air India crash is being investigated by a slew of agencies led by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in India. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is set to aid in the investigation.
In the meantime, regulators launched separate compliance probes into Boeing in the US and Air India back here. The latest DGCA order seems to be part of it, especially after the aviation watchdog organisation carried out inspections in 26 Air India Boeing 787 aircraft earlier in the week.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation, in its latest update, also noted that AAIB commenced its investigation on June 12. The crashed aircraft has two black boxes with one combined unit of the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) recovered on June 13 and the other on June 16.
