DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF CIVIL AVIATION INDIA SAFETY OVERSIGHT PROGRAMME 2014 (ANNUAL SURVEILLANCE & REGULATORY AUDIT) DGCA-INDIA SAFETY OVERSIGHT PROGRAMME 2014 FORE WORD India is a contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation and a member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), DGCA India has an obligation to promote safe, orderly and efficient operation of Civil Aviation activities. To meet State obligations, DGCA has laid down national regulations to ensure compliance with various Standard & Recommended Practices laid down by ICAO in Annexes to the convention. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is a regulatory body dealing with safety issues. DGCA is also responsible for regulation of air transport services to/from/within India and for enforcement of Civil Air Regulations, Airworthiness, Operations and Air safety. DGCA consists of Technical and Administration Directorates. Technical Directorates are; Airworthiness Directorate, Aerodr- ome Standards Directorate; Air Safety Directorate; Air Transport Directorate; Air Space & Air Navigation Services (AS & ANS) Directorate, Flight Standards Directorate, Regulations & Information Directorate; Aircraft Engineering Directorate, Flying & Training Directorate, Cabin Crew Safety Division & Dangerous Goods Division. Surveillance Enforcement Division (SED) in DGCA Headquarters is the office coordinating and consolidating the activities of ―DGCA Safety Oversight System‖. DGCA Hqrs. is located in New Delhi with Regional offices in the various parts of India. There are 14 (fourteen) Regional and Sub Regional Airworthiness Offices located at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Bhopal, Lucknow& Kanpur, Patna, Patiala, Guwahati, and Bhubaneshwar. Apart from the Regional Airworthiness Offices, there are 5 (five) Regional Air Safety offices located at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Aircraft Engineering Directorate has their another office located at Bengaluru. The DGCA Safety Oversight Programme for the year 2014 is based on the ―ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEILLANCE‖ carried out in the year 2013 which was based on ―RISK BASED OVERSIGHT‖ philosophy. The Risk Based Oversight philosophy included the state to set priorities in safety oversight. This risk based system makes it possible to reduce inspection efforts for good performing organization. The DGCA Safety Oversight Programme has been divided into 4 areas; 1. Surveillance Activities (Planned Inspection) 2. Regulatory Audit (Planned Audit) 3. SOFA Inspection 4. Spot Check (Unplaned Checks) 2 DGCA-INDIA SAFETY OVERSIGHT PROGRAMME 2014 I. Surveillance: DGCA has developed a system of surveillance to ensure continuing organizational, as well as individual, professional competency of license/rating/certificate/approval holders. The surveillance ensures the capability of an operator to ascertain an acceptable level of Safety in the area of Civil Aviation. Surveillance provide essential information of the State of compliance of organization & individual participants, identifying any corrective action needed to bring performance up to the required level. Surveillance aims to identify and correct non- compliance behaviors and unsafe practices before they cause any accident or incident. DGCA surveillance activity covers all participants in Civil Aviation System. (―Participants‖ include all organizations, individuals, products as well as services, procedures & facilities for which an aviation document is required by the Aircraft Rules to operate in the civil aviation system). Surveillance Programme for the aviation activities for the operator/organization shall be inspected as per the Annual Surveillance Programme (ASP). On completion of the surveillance, the deficiencies observed by the DGCA officers are listed and discussed in a de- briefing meeting wherein the operator/organization representatives may give their views. After final discussion, deficiencies/non-conformity notices are listed in Deficiency Reporting Form CA-2001 Rev-1, as per procedure manual of directorates which is duly signed by the officer(s) and forwarded to the concerned operator/organization. For every deficiency observed, the operator/organization is required to set the target date for making good the deficiency on Form CA-2001 Rev-1 and submit the same to the DGCA office for acceptance. On receipt of such form, DGCA officers will review the target date before acceptance of the same. Not with standing the above, DGCA may take disciplinary action such as suspension, cancellation/restricting the scope of approval wherever serious violations of laid down requirements are noticed and urgent action is required. Any failure on the part of the operator/organization to rectify the deficiencie(s) satisfactorily and within the set time frame and as agreed by DGCA, may invite appropriate action as per the Rules. Director General (CA) has operationalised the Safety Oversight Programme (SOP) of 2013 successfully, carried out number of surveillance inspections and detected number of Level- I and Level-II deficiencies. These deficiencies have been addressed successfully by all the stake holders. This has ensured strict compliance of Regulations.This has ultimately led to enhancement in aviation safety. Director General (CA) has approved an improved version of Safety Oversight Programme (SOP) of 2014 based on experience gained during the past from 2009 to 2013 and comprises of all Directorates. Further DGCA also analysed the field data/ descripencies reported during past surveillance inspections. DGCA also identified the weak areas of the operators and the areas of concern.The results of the analysis has been incorporated for the development of new Safety Oversight Programme (SOP) - 2014.The programme has been developed after taking into account the available resources within DGCA. 3 DGCA-INDIA SAFETY OVERSIGHT PROGRAMME 2014 A monthly programme of Surveillance is also prepared, which covers all Schedule/Non Schedule/ PrivateOperators/ General Aviation Organisations/ State Govt. Aircraft and their operations/ Oil companies and also Safety Assessment of Foreign Airlines. DGCA officers from Regional and Sub Regional Offices shall carry out night surveillance for Schedule/Non Schedule operators every month as required.Surveillance Inspection of Foreign Airlines shall be jointly carried out by inspectors from Flight Standards Directorate and Airworthiness Directorate as per the monthly Programme.Survellance Division will co-ordinate in this matter. A monthly progress report on Safety Oversight Programme SOP will be submitted by all the Regional Offices (including their Sub-Regional Offices) to their respective Directorates in Hqrs. by 10th of the following month on prescribed proforma. All Directorates at Hqrs. shall send report to Nodal Officer of SED by the 15th of the following month in the form of Table A, B1, B2, B3, B4, C, E & F. A monthly review of Safety Oversight Programme (SOP) will be held on every 20th of the following month in DGCA Hqrs., wherein monthly progress, short falls against monthly targets will be analyzed by DGCA along with analysis of identified deficiencies categorized into level-I &level-II. All level-I deficiencies will be further analyzed in the subsequent Board of Aviation Safety (BFAS) meeting which is being conducted 5th of the following month in DGCA Hqrs. These deficiencies will be fed into the SOP Data Pool for resolution, tracking and dissemination of safety related issues. Director General (CA) appeals to all officials of DGCA and the stake holders to participate in the surveillance programme in a constructive and positive manner so that regulation are strictly compiled with there by contributing over all aviation safety.It is expected that by collective endevaour India shall continue to remain well above the International standards. II Regulatory Audits Besides the surveillance, regulatory audits will be carried out during the year with an aim to ascertain the internal control of any organisation in its activities and to ensure compliance of regulatory requirements. A circular on Regulatory Audit Policy and Procedure has been issued and is enclosed as (Appendix 1). 4 DGCA-INDIA SAFETY OVERSIGHT PROGRAMME 2014 Regulatory Audit Programme (RAP) - 2014 . Regulatory Audit shall be carried out as per the structured procedure. Notified Nodal officer will co-ordinate Regulatory Audits. All reports of the Regulatory Audits are to be submitted to Nodal officer. Nodal officer will further ensure comlpletion of audit as per the laid down procedures. Schedule/ Non Schedule Airlines/MROs will be subjected to Regulatory Audits. Operators having less than 3 aircraft will be subjected to Annual Surveillance Programme only unless there are critical audit findings. The review of the Regulatory Audit progress will form a part the monthly Surveillance Meeting and will be monitored on a regular basis. III. SOFA Inspection Under Article 16 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation,States are entitled to search aircraft from other States on landing and departure and to inspect the certificates and other documents. Further, paragraph 4.2.2.2 of ICAO Annex 6 (Operation of Aircraft, Part-I International Commercial Air Transport—Aeroplanes) also requires that states shall establish a programme with procedures for the surveillance of operations in their territory by a foreign operator and for taking appropriate action when necessary to preserve safety.There are 19 foreign Airlines which