Mumbai, 25 Feb (HS): The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded

four aircraft of M/s VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd, after a special audit of the

company. The special audit was undertaken following death of the then Deputy

Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar with four others in the company’s Learjet

45 (VT-SSK) plane crash on January 28 in Baramati in Pune district.

Doubts about airworthiness of the crashed

aircraft and air safety and flight operations of the company were raised.

During the special audit certain deficiencies and violation of rules were

noticed. Deficiencies in maintenance of aircraft was also recorded.

Based on the special audit report the DGCA,

out of 40 to 45 types of aircraft of the company, VT-VRA, VT-VRS, VT-VRV and

VT-TRI aircraft were refused permission to fly until further orders.

MLA Rohit Pawar, nephew of late Ajit Pawar

had criticised the functioning of the company and has demanded strict action

against those responsible for the aircraft that crashed.

The DGCA has directed the company to

submit the ‘Root cause analysis’ report and issued Deficiency Reporting Form.

The final decision will be taken after receipt of the report

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Hindusthan Samachar / Ajay Vasant Mardikar