Urinating incident unfortunate, efforts were made to cover it up, says DGCA chief

New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar has described the Air India urination incident as "unfortunate", and said that there were efforts to cover it up which was not needed.

Speaking to the media, Kumar said that it shouldn't have happened in the first place, however it was an "unfortunate incident".

He added that lack of enforcement on part of the airlines led to that incident.

The DGCA further said that the airline was instructed to follow due instructions and fulfill the civil aviation requirements.

In this case (referring to the urinating incident), Kumar said that "everybody failed" as the "case was not reported and people tried to cover it up".

There was no need for that as it had happened due to somebody's mischief and the airlines just had to report the incident, the DGCA said while speaking to the media.

The DGCA had imposed a Rs 30 lakh fine on Air India and suspended the license of the pilot-in-command for three months, in the aftermath of the urinating incident, where a male passenger had urinated over a woman passenger aboard a New York-New Delhi flight on November 26, 2022.

The outgoing DGCA recounted the engine snags during the beginning of his tenure as the most serious issue which he faced.

The Pratt & Whitney (PW) engines of two major airlines developed snags, and after several meetings with the concerned aircraft manufacturer and engine maker, all the defective engines were replaced, Kumar told mediapersons.