In an embarrassing turn of events for the Indian Low Cost Carrier SpiceJet, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has refuted the carrier’s statement on 5 December that, SpiceJet’s operations, safety processes and systems were found to be in order following an exhaustive audit conducted by ICAO.
In the 5 December release, Ajay Singh, SpiceJet’s Chairman and Managing Director had said that the ICAO audit was the benchmark of safety and SpiceJet was the only scheduled Indian airline to undergo validation checks by ICAO in this audit.
Asian Airlines Reached out to ICAO to verify SpiceJet’s claims. In an email response, an official while stating that ICAO does not comment on statements by external parties, went on to say that ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) team was in India from 9-16 November and had performed an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM).
The official added that as part of an ICVM, ICAO teams conduct industry visits to verify the effectiveness of the civil aviation authority’s safety oversight. “This will include visits to multiple operators. Visits to these operators are not audits or inspections at all,” the official said.
The USOAP is governed by an agreement that is common to all 193 ICAO member states.
This agreement indicates what information ICAO can release from the USOAP activities, and this information is published on the ICAO website. “Any other information pertaining to a specific USOAP activity can only be released by the relevant government body,” the official added.
SpiceJet had claimed that the ICAO Auditing Committee visited its Head Office on 14 November and audited and reviewed the various flight critical functions and operational areas such as flight planning, weather assessment, route planning, aircraft serviceability, operations to critical airports, pilot rostering systems, cabin safety procedures etc.
SpiceJet did not respond to a request for clarification.
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