Air India flagged for operating Airbus aircraft with uninspected emergency escape slides

India’s aviation regulator has issued a warning to Air India for violating safety protocols after three of its Airbus aircraft were operated without undergoing overdue checks on critical emergency equipment, according to government documents reviewed by Reuters. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) criticized the airline not only for operating the aircraft in violation of airworthiness standards but also for its delayed response to the issue.

These warning notices and the related investigation report were sent prior to the recent crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8, which resulted in the death of 241 of the 242 people on board. The two matters are unrelated, the documents clarified.

In its report, the DGCA stated that spot checks conducted in May found that three Airbus aircraft had been flown without the required inspections of emergency escape slides, a crucial component in the event of an accident. In one case, an Airbus A320 had missed its scheduled inspection by over a month, during which it was flown on international routes including Dubai, Riyadh, and Jeddah. Another case involved an Airbus A319 that had gone over three months without the necessary check, while the third case involved a delay of two days.

“These cases demonstrate that the aircraft were operated with expired or unverified emergency equipment, which constitutes a breach of standard airworthiness and safety norms,” the DGCA report said.

It also pointed out that Air India had failed to respond promptly to concerns raised by the DGCA, suggesting weak procedural oversight and internal control.

Air India, which has been under the ownership of the Tata Group since 2022, responded by stating that it is “accelerating the verification of all maintenance records,” including those related to escape slides, and expects to complete the process shortly. The airline added that in one of the cases, the issue came to light after an engineer from AI Engineering Services accidentally deployed a slide during routine maintenance.

The DGCA further noted that aircraft missing mandatory checks are considered to have their airworthiness certificates suspended until compliance is restored.

Aviation safety experts have expressed concern, calling escape slide checks a serious safety matter. “If escape slides fail during an emergency, the risk of serious injury or death rises significantly,” said Vibhuti Singh, a former official with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.

The warning was formally issued by Animesh Garg, Deputy Director of Airworthiness, to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson and other senior airline officials including the heads of quality, planning, and airworthiness.

Legal experts noted that such violations can lead to civil and financial penalties for both the airline and its executives. According to the Indian government, Air India and its low-cost arm Air India Express accounted for over half of the 23 safety violations cited by authorities last year. Notably, one case involved unauthorized cockpit entry, and the airline was fined $127,000 for insufficient oxygen supply on a flight to San Francisco.

The recent Boeing crash is expected to further complicate Air India’s efforts to revamp its image, which has long suffered from complaints over service quality. In response, Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran has urged employees to treat the incident as a wake-up call to build a stronger, safer airline.

The DGCA also found that some of Air India’s aircraft had outdated registration paperwork, though the airline claimed that all but one aircraft were in compliance and that the issue did not pose any safety risk.

Ultimately, the regulator concluded that Air India’s quality and planning divisions failed to implement timely corrective measures even after earlier warnings—pointing to what it described as a “systemic control failure.”