DGCA imposes Rs 30 lakh penalty on IndiGo

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on IndiGo due to four tail strikes incidents in a time period of six months. A tail strike occurs when the tail or empennage of an aircraft hits the ground or any other stationary object during take-off or landing. DGCA carried out a special audit of Indigo airlines, and reviewed their documentation and procedure on operations, training, engineering and Flight Data Monitoring programme. During the special audit, “certain systemic deficiencies” were observed in Indigo Airlines documentation pertaining to operations/training procedures and engineering procedures. The civil aviation regulator found deficiencies in IndiGo’s training and engineering procedure during audits of those incidents. A senior DGCA official informed that Indigo Airlines experienced four tail strike incidents on A321 aircraft within a span of six months in the year 2023. DGCA issued a show cause notice to Indigo Airlines directing them to submit a reply within the stipulated time period. The reply was reviewed at various levels and was not found satisfactory. On Wednesday, DGCA suspended the license of the IndiGo pilot and co-pilot for having made a tail strike while landing at Ahmedabad Airport last month. Their licenses were suspended for 3 months and 1 month, respectively.