New Delhi: India’s civil aviation regulator has suspended operations of Aman Aviation for three months after an inspection revealed that the Mumbai-based helicopter operator had tampered with the expiry date of the distress signal, a device that helps in locating passengers after an accident.
“A show cause notice was sent in December and its reply was not found to be satisfactory,” an official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said, requesting anonymity. “It was then that Aman Aviation’s operations were ordered to be shut for three months.”
Aman Aviation & Aerospace Solutions, founded in January 2006, is a maintenance, repair and overhaul company approved by the DGCA and the US Department of Transportation. In 2010, it ventured into helicopter operations.
A chopper operated by Aman Aviation crashed in Mumbai’s Aarey milk colony in 2016, when the pilot and a couple on a joyride on their marriage anniversary were killed.
The DGCA had received a complaint against Aman Aviation, after which it conducted an inspection, officials said.
“Based on a complaint received, the DGCA conducted an inspection of Aman Aviation & Aerospace Solutions, wherein it was found that during the last shop visit of several survival kits, the organization had tampered the expiry date on the distress signal and had carried out unapproved maintenance on the age limited module,” the DGCA said.
“Tampering of distress signal is a serious violation and the punishment should have been harsher,” said aviation expert Mohan Ranganathan. “The firm’s operations should have been shut for at least a year.”
R Johri, owner of Aman Aviation, did not respond to HT’s queries despite repeated attempts.
