New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday imposed Rs. 10 lakh fine on no-frills airline SpiceJet for training 737 Max aircraft’s pilots on a faulty simulator. The DGCA surveillance team found that the stick shaker of the simulator was non-functional. Stick shaker is an instrument which vibrates rapidly when the aircraft is stalling, failing to lift itself.
Earlier, the DGCA had barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from flying B737 Max aircraft. The pilots will have to be retrained, the regulator had ordered. It said, “training being imparted by SpiceJet could have adversely affected flight safety and was nullified.”
The faults were detected 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. CSTPL has only approved 737 MAX simulator in India.
Scheduled surveillance checks and surprise audits are done by the regulator to find inefficiencies in the safety system of airlines, airports, flying training organisations and simulators to find deficiencies and implement corrective measures.