New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI) After finding several non-compliances, aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday ordered the grounding of four aircraft of VSR Ventures, whose plane crashed in Baramati last month, killing Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others.
After the Learjet 45 (VT-SSK) crash on January 28, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation ordered a special security audit of VSR Ventures.
Read also | Baramati plane crash: AAIB seeks specialist support to retrieve data from cockpit voice recorder
A multidisciplinary audit team noted several non-compliance with approved procedures in the organization in the areas of airworthiness, air safety and air traffic, the regulator said in a statement.
“In light of the identified non-conformances and in light of the gaps in maintenance procedures, it has been decided to initiate corrective action by immediately grounding Learjet 40/45 aircraft with registrations VT-VRA, VT-VRS, VT-VRV and VT-TRI until continuing airworthiness standards are restored,” it said.
Further, the DGCA said that deficiency reporting forms have been issued to VSR Ventures in the affected areas to submit root cause analysis of non-compliance. The submission would be assessed by a watchdog before proceeding further.
Pawar and four others were killed when a Learjet 45, owned by VSR Ventures, crashed near Baramati on January 28.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is expected to deliver its preliminary report into the fatal crash before February 28, but there have been concerns in certain quarters that there may have been a conspiracy to lead to the crash.
Read also | Ajit Pawar plane crash: Maha Dy CM dies, Baramati remembers their ‘Ajit dada’
AAIB investigation
The AAIB, which investigates air accidents, said on Tuesday that special support had been requested to retrieve data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 that crashed near Baramati last month.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others died in the fatal crash of a plane owned by VSR Ventures on January 28.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said in a statement that the plane was equipped with two independent flight recorders.
Both recorders were exposed to intense heat for long periods of time during the accident and suffered fire damage, the company said.
According to the AAIB, a digital flight data recorder (DFDR), manufactured by L3-Communications, was successfully downloaded at its flight recording laboratory.
Read also | Ajit Pawar plane crash: Black box found, sent to DGCA for probe
“The cockpit voice recorder (CVR), manufactured by Honeywell, is undergoing a detailed technical examination. We have requested the assistance of an accredited representative of the country of manufacture with specialized data acquisition support,” the investigative agency said.
In this case, the country of manufacture is the USA.
The AAIB asked all parties involved to refrain from speculation and said it was strictly following all prescribed technical and procedural protocols to ensure a comprehensive, objective and evidence-based investigation.
It also said the investigation is being conducted strictly in accordance with the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Annex 13 International Standards and Recommended Practices.
Last week, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the preliminary report on the Learjet 45 VT-SSK crash would be released soon.
