The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday grounded four aircraft operated by VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd over multiple violations found in a special safety audit conducted after the fatal Learjet 45 crash in Baramati on January 28 in which NCP leader Ajit Pawar was killed, officials familiar with the matter said.
“The audit was ordered on February 2. It began on February 4 and was completed by February 16, after which the results were analyzed before a final decision was taken,” an official familiar with the developments said.
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The audit team was headed by RK Anand, Deputy Director General, and included Pathik Vaghela, Deputy Director (Air Safety); Sushil Malik, Deputy Director (Airworthiness); and Siva Kumar Gadala, Assistant Director (Air Safety). The team also had Captain Apoorva Agarwal as Senior Inspector of Flight Operations, SFOI (A) and Captain Lokesh Rampal as Senior Inspector of Flight Operations (FOI).
The audit was conducted after the company’s Learjet 45 plane registered as VT-SSK crashed killing five people, including former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. The plane was making a second attempt to land at an out-of-control airport when it crashed.
“A multi-disciplinary team found numerous instances of non-compliance in approved procedures related to airworthiness, flight operations and safety,” a second official said, adding that the decision to ground the four aircraft was taken in light of the non-compliances observed and looking into gaps in maintenance procedures.
“The Learjet 40/45 aircraft registered VT-VRA, VT-VRS, VT-VRV and VT-TRI have been grounded with immediate effect until sustained airworthiness standards are restored,” the officer said.
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The DGCA has also issued deficiency reporting forms to the operator, requiring it to submit a root cause analysis of lapses identified during the audit process.
“Deficiency reporting forms have been issued to VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd to submit root cause analysis of non-compliance for further evaluation by the DGCA,” the second official said.
The move comes as part of increased scrutiny of charter flight operators in the wake of recent incidents, particularly after the Baramati crash, with the DGCA focusing on maintenance practices and compliance with safety procedures. It is currently conducting phased audits on all non-scheduled operators in the country
According to records reviewed by HT, the plane, VT-SSK, had been actively flying since at least the last week of December, operating charter flights to Mumbai, Goa (Mopa), Mangaluru, Delhi, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Pune, Surat and Mumbai’s Juhu airport.
Rohit Pawar’s reaction
NCP (SP) MLA and Ajit Pawar’s nephew, Rohit Pawar, welcomed the move and said he had repeatedly raised the issue against VSR aircraft operating in an abusive and highly unsafe manner.
“We have time and again raised the issue that VSR is not following any compliance and is operating the aircraft in a very arbitrary and unsafe manner. Today, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded four VSR aircraft due to the same non-compliance issue,” Pawar said on X.
He described the DGCA’s move to ground VSR aircraft as just the “tip of the iceberg”, adding that he would speak on the issue on Wednesday.
He added: “Although our struggle is beginning to see success, this is only the tip of the iceberg. There is still much that has not yet emerged. I will talk in detail about this matter tomorrow morning.”
