Mukesh Ambani's luxury jet grounded for 'serious lapses' in safety norms

New Delhi: Following surprise checks, a super luxury business jet of Reliance Industries — used by Mukesh Ambani, his family and the group’s top management — was grounded on Saturday, media reports have said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) grounded the business jet for carrying expired safety equipment on-board. The aviation regulator has also suspended its pilot for flying without a licence. [caption id=“attachment_74240” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] RIL chief Mukesh Ambani. Reuters[/caption] The DGCA, which carried out a surprise inspection at Delhi’s IGI Airport, also searched Jindal Steel and Power Ltd’s Global Express BD 700 aircraft and found several major lapses, official sources told PTI. While action against the Jindal company aircraft would be decided on Monday, the Reliance plane was grounded immediately, just before it was slated to take off from there, they said. According to a Times of India report, an exhaustive check of VT-ISH revealed that the jet’s emergency equipment like fire extinguishers had expired. So was the personal breathing equipment — which drops down in event of fall in cabin pressure. A Reliance Commercial Dealers Ltd spokesperson told the Business Standard, “All the required documents and equipment have been supplied to the DGCA and we are cooperating with the authorities to ensure that everything is in order. We are hoping that the DGCA will soon release the plane.” According to reports, the commander of the aircraft was not carrying his licence and the co-pilot too was not in possession of certain documents to be mandatorily carried. DGCA chief Prabhat Kumar directed the aircraft would remain grounded until the deficiencies were removed and all equipment replaced with new ones. The 13-seater Global Express BD 700 aircraft (VT-JSB), owned by the Jindals, carried operation manuals of other aircraft and not its own. The BS report notes that the action comes at a time when private planes and helicopters are being heavily used as charters to fly political leaders across the country on election campaigns. With inputs from Agencies (Disclosure: The Reliance Group has funded the promoter of Network18, which publishes Firstpost)