Kingfisher Airlines was on the verge of having its operating permit suspended by the country's DGCA, a review of government documents has shown. The Ex-DGCA Chief Bharat Bhushan had almost got Kingfisher grounded.
On July 9, a day before he was abruptly removed from his post, EK Bharat Bhushan, the head of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), noted in a file on the financial surveillance of Kingfisher that "the airline maybe issued a notice that unless it is able to clear its liabilities, or a substantial portion thereof, including employee wages, which have remained unpaid since February 2012, within 15 days, we will be constrained to suspend the operating permit of the airline" as per a report in ET by Binoy Prabhakar.
The note was the culmination of a series of investigations into the operations of Kingfisher, which has been troubled by rising debt and liabilities and strikes by pilots over unpaid salaries as per a report in ET by Binoy Prabhakar.
The file noting has since "gone missing", according to Bhushan, who has sought an independent enquiry. Bhushan's successor Prashant Sukul, who was in charge only for a fortnight before Arun Mishra took over as the DGCA head this Thursday, told reporters last week that "no such document was found".
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