Aviation ministry pulls the plug on Kanpur's Garg Aviation amid safety complaints

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry on Tuesday suspended the operations of Kanpur-based flying training organisation (FTO) Garg Aviation “until further notice”, following a series of complaints alleging safety and regulatory violations at the flight school, multiple people aware of the matter told HT.

“The DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has suspended the FTO’s operations on the ministry’s direction,” a civil aviation ministry official told HT.

“It is also learnt that the FTO was not conducting any operations for a few days. The DGCA will look into the concerns in detail,” the officer added.

The action comes after the Associations of Flight training Organisation (AFTO) wrote to civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu and civil aviation secretary Samir Kumar Sinha on Tuesday seeking a monitored investigation into its allegations against Garg Aviation.

The association, in its letter seen by HT, said it had submitted 14 complaints to the DGCA since November 2024, alleging several violations and non-compliances, but claimed that no “serious and transparent investigation” had been undertaken.

Garg Aviation was recently involved in a fatal crash in which a pilot and an instructor were killed in Kanpur on August 27. Separately, a trainee pilot was injured following a landing incident in June and in which an FIR was filed by the injured student, according to people aware of the matter.

The complaints also covered issues including operation in low-visibility conditions, use of aircraft without transponders, inadequate CCTV monitoring, concerns over the suitability of Kanpur airport’s runway for training operations and other alleged violations of DGCA regulations.

Among the complaints submitted to the DGCA was that training flights were conducted in visibility of around 2,500-3,000 metres, below the 5,000 metres visual meteorological conditions minimum cited in the complaint.

It also alleged that Garg Aviation’s trainer aircraft were being operated without mandatory Mode A/C transponders (an electronic device to communicate with the ATC).

The AFTO thus sought an independent audit of Garg Aviation, asking the DGCA to check its compliance with rules on communication, CCTV, transponders and airspace clearances, as well as whether Kanpur airport’s runway is suitable for pilot training.

“In view of these glaring pieces of evidence and allegations of operating flight training operations in violation and non-compliance of DGCA’s regulations we suggest that an undertaken audit of Garg Aviation must be taken to put an end to the corruption, collusion and connivance that has permitted these actions to continue despite continuous reporting to the officers of the country’s sole civil aviation regulator,” the letter stated.