Regulator orders audit of Air India's 4 engineering bases

NEW DELHI: The civil aviation regulator has ordered an audit of national carrier Air India's (AI) engineering bases following two incidents of fire on its flights last week.

"We will audit all four engineering bases of Air India at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad. We will check records of all aircraft in AI's fleet, we will examine if AMEs (aircraft maintenance engineers) are conducting proper checks before an aircraft is airborne, if aircrafts are being flown with any defects and if the airline is keeping in stock adequate spares," said a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The DGCA probe follows incidents of fire at the Delhi and the Mumbai airports. On September 8, fire was reported in the right tailpipe of an Air India flight from Jaipur that had just landed in Mumbai.

"The crew of another air craft passing by noticed fire in the right tailpipe and alerted the ATC. An AME on stand by extinguished the fire. The presence of excess fuel in the tailpipe had led to the fire. We will probe if Air India air crafts are being maintained properly," the official said.

A day earlier, a Varanasi Delhi flight, AI405, with 153 people onboard, had to make an emergency landing at Delhi airport following a fire caused by a leak in the hydraulic system.