Aviation Minister asks airlines to strengthen safety oversight

New Delhi, July 18

Concerned over the rising number of technical glitches in flights, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held meetings with chiefs of Indian airlines on Monday, asking them to strengthen safety oversight.

Scores of flights have been diverted owing to multiple technical snags in Indian carriers' aircraft in the last one month. Sources said that the Aviation Minister on Monday told each airline to take all necessary steps that are needed to ramp up safety oversight.

Earlier on Sunday, Scindia had held a meeting on safety issues with senior officials of his Ministry and aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

In the Sunday meeting, the Minister took a detailed report from officials about the incidents over the last one month and told them that there should be no compromise over passengers' safety.

Multiple incidents of technical glitches in planes have been reported recently. IndiGo's Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as a precautionary measure after pilots observed a defect in one of the engines.

On Saturday night, the Calicut-Dubai flight of Air India Express was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was detected in the cabin mid-air. A day earlier, an alive bird was found in the cockpit of Air India Express' Bahrain-Kochi flight.

Before this, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Vadodara was diverted to Jaipur on Thursday night as a precautionary measure following vibrations in the engine for a fraction of a second.