India has increased the monitoring of Boeing 737 fleets of Indian carriers on ‘enhanced surveillance’ following the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 with 132 people on board on Monday.
“Flight safety is serious business and we are closely studying the situation. In the interim, we are focusing on enhanced surveillance of our 737 fleet," PTI quoted DGCA chief Arun Kumar as saying.
Three Indian carriers – SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express – have Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleets. Boeing 737 Max aircraft is an advanced version of Boeing 737-800 and both belong to the 737 series.
Two Boeing 737 Max aircraft were involved in accidents in the six-month period between October 2018 and March 2019, killing a total of 346 people. Following these two accidents, the DGCA had banned Boeing 737 Max planes in India in March 2019.
After Boeing made necessary software rectifications to the satisfaction of the DGCA, the ban on the aircraft's commercial operations was lifted in August last year.
