An Air India 777 booked to capacity was delayed for more than eight hours in Chicago after a surprise safety inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) discovered something sinister…missing seat belt tags!
Apparently the flight was preparing to depart when surprise inspectors from the FAA showed up and demanded to examine the aircraft.
The surprise check by the [FAA] found a large number of belts on seats of the Delhi-bound Boeing-777 (VT-ALK) without the mandatory tags bearing their technical standard order (TSO) number.
Per the FAA–
A Technical Standard Order (TSO) is a minimum performance standard issued by the United States Federal Aviation Administration for specified materials, parts, processes, and appliances used on civil aircraft. Articles with TSO design approval are eligible for use on the United States type certified products.
In plain English, the FAA had no way to tell if the safety belts were certified and therefore safe.
Air India responded by pulling out some seat belts from its 777 sitting on the ground at New York JFK and putting them on a Delta flight to Chicago. Once the tag-bearing safety belts arrived in Chicago, they were promptly installed and the plane took off…eight hours late. No word on the fate of the JFK flight, presumably missing seat belts…
Deliberate Targeting of Air India?
Air India is indignant that it was subjected to so strict a check. A spokesman stated–
The seat belts were perfectly fine. Only some had tags worn out. This is an instance of impractical or irrelevant stipulations being imposed on Air India by FAA. However, we would take necessary action to ensure such things don’t recur. A lot of new seat belts have been ordered.
A senior Air India official added–
The checks have intensified in the recent past. While technically FAA was correct in pointing out the missing TSO tags, we told them that new seat belts have been ordered and the old ones will be replaced very soon. Still the aircraft was not allowed to take off till we got some belts from another of our aircraft in New York.
Well, yeah. That’s the point. I feel like if Air India cannot get its tags right, will it fail to maintain other more critical components of its aircraft?
image: Brian / Wikimedia Commons
I am all for calling out an overzealous bureaucracy, but this does not appear to be as trivial as Air India lets on. Why were the tags missing? Most likely due to wear and tear which indicates that the seatbelts should have long since been replaced. Air India said “A lot of new seat belts have been ordered” why a lot if it were only a handful? I have a feeling that they know that this is an issue and without this incident would have just continued to ignore it.
To me this is VERY interesting. I flew JetBlue with a defective seat belt. The belt just slid looser under any strain, exactly the oposite of th way it is supposed to work. JetBlue cabin crew ignored my concern so I filed a complaint with the FAA. The FAA phoned me weeks late rto advise that they inspected the seat belt. The CLINCHER was that the FAA had JetBlue do the checking for them.
It may not seem fair for Air India ti be targeted for such inspection. Then again, safety first, comfort can come later. With such finding, is there any possibility that FAA or any other authority revoke the landing permit of Air India in US soil due to safety reason?
If you know Air India’s reputation, this isn’t actually that surprising. A friend of mine, who is from India and travels back regularly, refuses to fly Air India, period full stop.
In today’s episode of pot calling the kettle black, you have an airline representing a country where I once had to submit a bank account application 4 times, for reasons ranging from my wife’s passport photo being “too dark” to me signing the application a fraction of an inch off the line and allegedly blocking part of the jurat, complain about overzealous bureaucracy.
In all seriousness, didn’t India only regain their Category I certification fairly recently? My guess is the “intensified” checks are related. As someone else mentioned, the most likely reason tags have gone missing is due to wear and tear. While probably normal, I think the fact these weren’t replaced earlier is a bigger deal than AI wants to admit.