DGCA Orders Airlines To Conduct Routine Seat Inspections

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has advised airlines to perform regular inspections of seats to ensure their serviceability during flights.

In response, Air India has initiated a programme to inspect seat cushions for sagging every seven days, the government announced on Monday.

Last month, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan criticized Air India for providing him with a "broken and sunken" seat. The airline apologized for the incident, and Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu instructed the carrier to take "necessary action."

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Monday (March 17), Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said the responsibility of regular inspection of the seats and other inflight cabin equipment, lies with the airlines to ensure their serviceability in the cabin as per the approved manual.

"Whenever the defect is observed during the flight the cabin crew makes the entry in the cabin defect register. Further, the non-functional seat should be made functional before allotting the seat to the passenger," he said.

Mohol also said the civil aviation ministry does not maintain the data for broken or non-functional seats replaced by all the airlines.

"With reference to the complaints of bad quality of seats as well as other inferior quality of in-flight facilities, the DGCA advised airline operators to conduct regular inspections for seats to ensure seat comfort/serviceability during operation of aircraft.

"Accordingly, Air India has launched inspection program to check the seats cushions for sagging condition every seven days," the minister said.

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