Times of India
MUMBAI: In the largest investigation ever against the Indian civil aviation regulator, more than 200 DGCA officials are being questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in Delhi for misuse of free air tickets.
The preliminary enquiry (PE) was initiated by the CBI's anti-corruption bureau to look for cases of misuse of an aviation norm under which free airline tickets have to be issued by airlines and aviation companies to officials of theDirectorate General of Civil Aviation when they need to travel to carry out certain air safety inspections. "The norm has been widely misused over years. Not only have some officials asked airlines to issue them free tickets for their personal travel, but also sought tickets for their spouses and personal assistants,'' said the source. "As DGCA officials hold an influential position in the Indian aviation industry, it is evident that airlines and aviation companies would never turn down a demand for free tickets from them,'' said an airline source.
A CBI spokesperson confirmed that a PE is being carried out against DGCA officials for misuse of the said norm. "Upon the Central Vigilance Commission's reference, we will be examining the official travel receipts and free tickets availed by DGCA officers from 2010 to 2012,'' the spokesperson said. Based on the findings, either an FIR will be filed against the officials concerned or the case closed. The director-general of civil aviation, Arun Mishra, was not available for comment.
The investigations began last Tuesday and are expected to continue in the coming weeks as DGCA officials and other aviation personnel who work for the regulator have been called in from across the country.
The norm whose misuse is being investigated (called the Aeronautical Information Circular, AIC 02/1978) states that every operator or owner of an aircraft registered in India shall make available, free of charge, a seat on the aircraft to an officer of the civil aviation department authorized by the director general to undertake certain job functions. These include en route examination and inspection of the work of flight crew members, inspection of aircraft maintenance facilities en route or at terminal stations, inspection of the operations of an aircraft or of its equipment and such other examination as may be necessary for the purpose of securing safety of aircraft operations.
What it means is that when a DGCA official needs to do undertake these inspections pertaining to safety and has to travel in the cockpit of an aircraft or to a facility to inspect maintenance infrastructure, he/she should be provided with a free seat by the airline/party concerned. The said norm was replaced with an amended version in 2012. While in the earlier norm only the director-general could authorize such a travel, the one issued in 2012 gave that right to other officers as well. "It was probably done in hindsight after the CVC started looking into the issue of free tickets misuse,'' said a source. Then again, several officials availed of free tickets to travel for work that had nothing to do with safety and so did not meet the criteria listed in the AIC, the source said.
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