ICAO audit establishes SpiceJet’s credentials as a ‘safe airline’

The comprehensive audit by ICAO firmly establishes SpiceJet’s credentials which it said in the statement as a “safe airline”.

ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation around the world.

SpiceJet was the only scheduled Indian airline part of the audit conducted by ICAO under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach. 

The audit of SpiceJet safety systems helped India achieve its highest-ever safety ranking in the ICAO audit.

Giving details about the audit, the statement said the Auditing Committee visited the SpiceJet Head Office on November 14, 2022, from where all SpiceJet flights are controlled, and the SpiceJet flight dispatch offices at Delhi Airport.

They audited and reviewed the various flight critical functions and operational areas such as flight planning, weather assessment, route planning, aircraft serviceability, operations to critical airports, pilot rostering systems, and cabin safety procedures, the statement added.

“The ICAO audit is the benchmark of safety. We are proud that our safety culture, systems, processes and operations have been found to be in order and at par with the global best practices and safety standards,” said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of SpiceJet.

“We are proud that SpiceJet was the only scheduled Indian airline to undergo validation checks by ICAO in this audit. SpiceJet is truly humbled at playing a role in India achieving the highest ever safety ranking and making it to the top 50 nations in terms of ICAO aviation safety audit scores. This audit is a testament to the highest standard of safety followed by SpiceJet.”

“All credit for this remarkable achievement and India’s best-ever performance goes to our Hon’ble Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, who with his inspiring leadership, untiring efforts and dedication has helped Indian aviation scale new heights,” Singh added.

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For the record, SpiceJet had been going through a highly turbulent phase in recent times on account of several glitches and a non-adherence to mandated guidelines in regard to the training of some pilots.

The recent incident was reported on 2 December when a SpiceJet flight from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) bound for Kozhikode with 197 passengers, including six crew, onboard had an emergency landing at the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) following hydraulic failure. An emergency was declared in the airport here at 6:29 pm after the SpiceJet-SG 036 flight, which was scheduled to land at Kozhikode airport, got diverted to Kochi. 

The incidents started in April 2022 when the aviation watchdog the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) restrained 90 pilots of the airline from operating Boeing 737 Max aircraft, after finding they were not properly trained. That was followed by multiple snags in its aircraft.

Meanwhile, India also received its highest ever rank on the ICAO aviation safety ranking. The country jumped to the 48th place from 102nd spot in 2018. DGCA chief Arun Kumar in his announcement stated that the new challenge is to maintain and further improve the air safety ecosystem.

(With inputs from ANI)