DGCA on Safety Measures for Boeing 737 MAX 8

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India has issued additional measures for Indian operators covering the areas of engineering, maintenance and flight operations. Under the new norms, airlines will have to ensure the captain operating the MAX aircraft has a minimum of 1,000 hours of experience and co-pilot has 500 hours of experience on 737 planes. The engineering departments have also been instructed not to release the MAX planes for operations in case of failure of autopilot and faults in spoiler system. The DGCA said these are interim measures and has been communicated to Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration.