The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has filed a police complaint against a doctor employed by the GMR Aviation who had allowed 27 chartered flights, including those carrying VVIPs like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, to fly without proper mandatory pre-flight tests.
In April, the civil aviation regulator had grounded 11 pilots and six cabin crew of the GMR's aviation company for safety violations during the period between March 12 and April 14. The breach of aviation manual's safety code was detected after a surprise check by the DGCA. Refuting the charges, the GMR Aviation had maintained that neither any test was skipped nor any data "falsified".
Subsequently, the DGCA had then decided to carry out an inquiry on its own in the matter. The civil aviation regulator, a DGCA official said, found that Dr L.M. Narula had "allowed 27 chartered flights out of Delhi, including 10 of these carrying passenger falling under Special Protection Group (SPG) protected Z+ category, thereby putting at risk the safety of highprofile passengers and aircraft operations".
According to the DGCA official, they found that the Alco Sensor machine was unserviceable, the mandatory breath analyser check was not carried out and the crew was cleared for the flight in spite of this mandatory test.
"It was also observed that the last breath analyser test was done on that equipment on February 22. There was no other method of ensuring whether any crew member had consumed alcohol in last 12 hours, but he (Dr Narula) certified and issued a false certification of facts," the DGCA official said.
Besides pressing charge for violation of Rule 161 of the Aircraft Rules, the police have registered a case under six IPC sections - Sections 420, 464, 477A, 191, 197 and 463 (see box) - against the doctor for issuing fake medical certificates to the crew members and pilots without conducting pre-flight medical tests.
"Prima-facie it seems that doctor didn't perform his duty. But as the jets belonged to the GMR, the police will investigate that whether Dr Narula informed the GMR officials about the machine. If he informed that the machine is not working, then the GMR officials can also face action as it is the responsibility of the operator to give proper infrastructure," a senior police officer said.
Joint Director-General of the civil aviation regulator, Lalit Gupta, in his complaint, wrote: "On 14th April, a team of officers of DGCA, who is the regulating authority in civil aviation matters, observed that the crew of GMR Aviation comprising of Captain J. Bala, Captain O. Hemant Kumar and cabin crew Arvinder Kaur operated charter flight on April 14, 2014, to Bhubaneswar with one of the passenger falling under SPG protected Z+ category using Falcon 2000 aircraft VT-BRK without undergoing mandatory breath analyser test."
Scrutiny of pre-flight medical records from March 12 to April 14 revealed that Dr Narula did not carry out mandatory breath analyser check for any GMR Aviation crew, though the operator has operated 27 charter flights out of Delhi, Gupta added.