Indian MRO provider Air Works says it is conducting an internal investigation into its operational processes after India's Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found that the company had released aircraft back to operators without properly rectifying defects.
This comes after local media reported that the DGCA had conducted an audit of Air Works between July and September 2018 and found that "maintenance personnel had issued certificate(s) of release to service without carrying out appropriate maintenance work on the defective aircraft".
Speaking to FlightGlobal, Air Works' executive director Ravi Menon confirmed the audit and says that the cases had occurred at stations across the country "are to be taken into isolation." He adds that the defects in question belong to parts "that do not comprise flight safety".
These include defects to in-flight entertainment systems, doors and switches, as well as repairing minor leaks in landing gear actuators.
"What had most probably happened was that our engineers did not record the defects in our defects register," says Menon. “Action will be taken against those who are culpable (the aircraft engineers), but as an organisation, we need to also educate those involved.”
"[Aviation safety] is continuously evolving and processes will be improved upon when needed. We need to do this [together] as an industry."
Air Works has line maintenance stations across India, but has two hangars for base maintenance in Hosur. Its capabilities for heavy checks include C-level checks on the ATR 42/72, Airbus A320 as well as Boeing 737.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
