The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aviation watchdog, on Tuesday said that surveillance conducted at major airports in India has revealed several defects in the aviation ecosystem, including multiple cases wherein the defects reappeared on aircraft and centre line marking faded on the runway.

The surveillance comes against the backdrop of the tragic Air India plane crash at Ahmedabad on June 12 in which 270 people were killed, including 241 onboard.

The checks covered critical areas such as flight operations, airworthiness, communication, ramp safety, air traffic control, navigation systems, and pre-flight medical evaluations.

'Defects reappeared, ineffective monitoring': DGCA

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the aviation watchdog said that it had found multiple instances of aircraft defects reappearing "many times" at Mumbai and Delhi airports, two of the country's busiest. It indicates ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification, the statement added.

Take corrective measures in 7 days, warns DGCA

Without disclosing the names of the airlines or any other entities in the ecosystem, the DGCA said that the surveillance findings have been communicated to concerned stakeholders. In the statement, the DGCA said that the corrective actions must be taken within seven days.

Two teams led by the DGCA Joint Director General conducted comprehensive surveillance during night and early morning hours at major airports, including Delhi and Mumbai.

Simulator, software defects detected

During the surveillance, the team found that a domestic flight of a scheduled carrier was held up due to worn tyres and was released only after the required rectification, the statement said.

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Among other defects, the aviation regulator found that a simulator was not matching the aircraft configuration, and also, the software was not updated to the current version.

(With PTI Inputs)