IAS officer Vikram Dev Dutt appointed as the new DGCA chief

At a time when the aviation regulator is flagging a lot of safety issues with the airlines, the Cabinet Committee on Appointments has approved the appointment of senior IAS officer Vikram Dev Dutt as the next director general of the Directorate of General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Dutt, a 1993-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre is currently serving as the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Air India Asset Holding Ltd. The officer will take over his new position on 28 February, upon the superannuation of incumbent DGCA Chief Arun Kumar, who was serving as the aviation regulator since July 2019.

The appointment of the new director general came at a time when the DGCA has to take several difficult decisions around penalizing violations of safety rules by the airlines. Recently, the aviation regulator fined Air India Rs. 30 lakhs and also suspended its pilot for three months in the urinating incident on the airline's New York-New Delhi flight.

This was the first time DGCA penalized an airline for the actions of an unruly passenger. The aviation watchdog also slapped an Rs. 3 lakh fine on Air India's Director of in-flight services for failing to discharge its duties in the matter.

"We respectfully acknowledge the gaps in our reporting and are taking relevant steps to ensure that the same are addressed. We are also strengthening our crews' awareness of and compliance with policies on handling incidents involving unruly passengers," the airline spokesperson said.

The accused Shankar Mishra was also banned from flying for four months. Mishra said that the decision of DGCA was based on an incorrect understanding and he will appeal against the decision.

“We would particularly like to point out that the Internal Inquiry Committee’s ruling hinges upon their incorrect understanding of the layout of the Aircraft. When the Committee could not find an adequate explanation as to how the accused could have urinated on the complainant sitting on seat 9A without also affecting the passenger on Seat 9C, it has erroneously gone on to assume that there was a seat 9B in the business class in the aircraft,” the statement issued by lawyers Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai said.

(With inputs from agencies)