Stepped up oversight beyond DGCA norms after AI171 crash: Air India

AIr republic of india has tightened its intragroup inadvertence mechanisms and increased the oftenness of operating(a) audits beyond regulatory requirements following the AI171 crash that killed 241 people, as part of a broader effort to strengthen operational resilience and organisational effectiveness, according to details shared by the airline.The airline said it has adopted a strengthened risk-based audit framework that prioritises high-risk operations, emerging hazards and identified areas of concern.“While DGCA CAR (Civil Aviation Requirements) mandates defined audit periodicity—once annually for Delhi and once every two years for other stations—Air India has adopted a more rigorous cadence informed by risk assessment. Accordingly, Delhi operations are now audited twice a year, and all other stations annually. This reflects a conscious move to exceed regulatory requirements, exercising an added layer of diligence and caution,” Air India said in a statement.“A structured, risk-based audit planning framework has been significantly strengthened, post AI-171, ensuring that audit resources are systematically prioritised towards high-risk operations, emerging hazards, and identified areas of safety concern. This is over and above airlines’ regulatory compliance requirements, and this enhancement has advanced a more proactive approach to risk identification, deepened alignment with Air India’s Safety Management System (SMS), and enabled more effective deployment of audit resources to areas of greatest impact,” the airline said on Thursday.The enhanced audit programme covers a wide range of operational areas, including flight operations, engineering practices, ground handling, cargo acceptance and handling, documentation processes, and the passenger journey from check-in to arrival.On the B787 fleet, the airline said the completion of initial programmes increased from nearly 75% to 87% over the last year, while the number of reliability programmes expanded from 36 to 45. The overall completion level also increased from 48% to 65% during the same period.Alongside the operational measures, Air India also said it has expanded mental health support for employees affected by the crash through a comprehensive wellness initiative. “More than 900 cabin crew members have been reached through the programme, while existing support systems such as employee assistance programmes, peer-support networks and in-house psychologists have also been reinforced,” the airline said.It said the initiatives are intended to improve fleet reliability, operational consistency and human performance.