Latest news with #EUAgency
ABC News
04-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Air India Express warned about Airbus engine repair delays and forged records
India's aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India's budget carrier in March for failing to change engine parts of an Airbus A320 in a timely manner as directed by the European Union's aviation safety agency, and for falsifying records to show compliance, a government memo shows. Air India Express told Reuters it acknowledged the error to the Indian watchdog and undertook "remedial action and preventive measures". Reacting to the Reuters story on Friday, the EU agency said it would investigate the matter. Air India has been under intense scrutiny since one of its Boeing Dreamliners crashed in Ahmedabad in June, killing all but one of the 242 people onboard. The world's worst aviation disaster in a decade is still being investigated. The engine issue in the Air India Express's Airbus was raised on March 18, months before the crash. But the regulator has this year also warned parent Air India for breaching rules for flying three Airbus planes with overdue checks on escape slides. In June it also warned it about "serious violations" of pilot duty timings. Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group. It has more than 115 aircraft and flies to more than 50 destinations, with 500 daily flights. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency in 2023 issued an airworthiness directive to address a "potential unsafe condition" on CFM International LEAP-1A engines, asking for the replacement of some components such as engine seals and rotating parts, saying some manufacturing deficiencies were found. The agency's directive said: "This condition, if not corrected, could lead to failure of affected parts, possibly resulting in high energy debris release, with consequent damage to, and reduced control of, the aeroplane." The Indian government's confidential memo in March sent to the airline, and seen by Reuters, said that surveillance by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed the parts modification "was not complied" on an engine of an Airbus A320 "within the prescribed time limit". "In order to show that the work has been carried out within the prescribed limits, the AMOS records have apparently been altered/forged," the memo added, referring to the Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Operating System software used by airlines to manage maintenance and airworthiness. The mandatory modification was required on Air India Express's VT-ATD plane, the memo added. That plane typically flies on domestic routes and some international destinations such as Dubai and Muscat, according to the AirNav Radar website. The lapse indicated "that the accountable manager has failed to ensure quality control", it added. Air India Express told Reuters its technical team missed the scheduled implementation date for parts replacement due to the migration of records on its monitoring software, and it fixed the problem soon after it was identified. It did not give dates of compliance or directly address DGCA's comment about records being altered, but said that after the March memo it took "necessary administrative actions", which included removing the quality manager from the person's position and suspending the deputy continuing airworthiness manager. The DGCA did not respond to queries from Reuters. In a statement issued after the Reuters story was published, the EU agency said it "will investigate this matter further with" CFM and the DGCA. Airbus and CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Safran, did not respond to Reuters queries. The lapse was first flagged during a DGCA audit in October 2024 and the plane in question took only a few trips after it was supposed to replace the CFM engine parts, a source with direct knowledge said. "Such issues should be fixed immediately. It's a grave mistake," said Vibhuti Singh, a former legal expert at India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. "The risk increases when you are flying over sea or near restricted airspace." The Indian government told parliament in February that authorities warned or fined airlines in 23 instances for safety violations last year. Three of those cases involved Air India Express, and eight Air India. The Tata Group acquired Air India from the Indian government in 2022 and the Dreamliner crash has cast a shadow on its ambitions of making it a "world class airline". While Air India has aggressively expanded its international flight network, it still faces persistent complaints from passengers, who often take to social media to show soiled seats, broken armrests, non-operational entertainment systems and dirty cabins. Reuters
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Central Bank's Derville Rowland to join EU anti-money laundering agency
Central Bank of Ireland deputy governor Derville Rowland has been confirmed to join the executive board of the European Union's new Anti-Money Laundering Agency (AMLA). Ms Rowland will be one of five executive board members at the Frankfurt-based agency and will leave her role with the Irish regulator, where she is responsible for consumer and investor protection. The Central Bank said the recruitment process to find her replacement is ongoing. In the meantime, deputy governor for financial regulation Mary-Elizabet McMunn will take on Ms Rowland's former role. Ms Rowland said she was proud to be appointed to the new organisation, which is tasked with 'making our financial system cleaner, our economy more resilient and our people safer'. READ MORE She said: 'For our financial system to be trustworthy, it will need a collective and unyielding European response, to ensure that money laundering and terrorist financing are systematically combated. I look forward to helping to lead that work.' Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf said he was delighted his colleague will be joining the new EU agency. 'Derville's appointment to this role is a testament not only to the high regard in which she is held but also to the strong track record of the Central Bank at a European level,' he said. 'I want to thank Derville for her significant contribution to the Central Bank's public service mission over the last 20 years. On behalf of the Central Bank Commission and staff, I would like to wish her every success.' As a member organisation of AMLA, Mr Makhlouf said the Central Bank will contribute to its objectives. The AMLA is expected to start operations from this summer and hire an initial 80 employees by the end of this year. It will set uniform standards for compliance and supervision across the EU and serve as a data-sharing hub for national financial intelligence units. From 2028 it will directly oversee 40 of the EU's riskiest financial institutions as measured by their systemic importance and exposure to illicit finance. Ireland had bid to host the AMLA but lost out to Germany's financial capital 11 months ago. The agency is expected to have more than 400 employees by 2027. Ms Rowland has developed a high domestic profile in recent years, leading the Central Bank's tracker-mortgage examination and subsequent enforcement actions against the country's banks.
