'Explosives on flight': India warns Turkish airlines after surprise checks find lapses at 4 airports

India has warned Turkish Airlines to follow safety regulations after surprise inspections at four airports revealed violations, including one case where explosives were allegedly transported on a flight without being declared.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducted unannounced safety checks on Turkish Airlines’ passenger and cargo flights at four major Indian airports – Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bengaluru – between 29 May and 2 June 2025.

“The cargo contained dangerous goods for which prior approval from the DGCA is required for the carriage of explosives to or from India. This approval was neither attached nor mentioned in the dangerous goods declaration,” the aviation ministry said.

“At Bengaluru, the marshaller handling ground operations lacked proper authorisation and a valid competency card for marshalling duties. During the arrival of an aircraft, a maintenance engineer was unavailable, and the procedure was carried out by a technician instead,” the ministry said further.

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The inspections were conducted under Article 16 of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Convention to assess the airline’s compliance with international safety standards and DGCA regulations.

DGCA directs airline to adhere to standards, aviation rules

Following the inspections, the DGCA directed Turkish Airlines to fully adhere to ICAO standards and Indian aviation rules. The regulator said follow-up inspections would be carried out to ensure continued compliance and urged the airline to promptly address the identified shortcomings.