New Delhi: Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar has termed the incident of urination in Air India aircraft as unfortunate. He said that an attempt was made to hide the incident, which was not needed. Speaking to the media, Kumar said that this should not have happened, though it was an unfortunate incident. He said the incident happened due to lack of enforcement on the part of the airlines. The DGCA said the airline was directed to follow appropriate directions and meet civil aviation requirements.
In this case (referring to the urinating incident), Kumar said that everyone failed as the matter was not reported and people tried to cover it up. Speaking to the media, the DGCA said that there was no need for this as it was due to someone’s mischief and the airlines simply had to report the incident. The DGCA had imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India and suspended the pilot-in-command’s license for three months. Significantly, on November 26 last year, during a flight from New York to New Delhi, a male passenger urinated on a female passenger.
The outgoing DGCA cited engine failure as the most serious issue he faced at the start of his tenure. Kumar told mediapersons that the Pratt & Whitney (PW) engines of the two major airlines developed a fault and after several meetings with the aircraft manufacturer and the engine manufacturer concerned, all the faulty engines were replaced.
