According to a press release, Spice Jet officially announced on December 5 that it had passed the ICAO safety assessment and was the first airline to do so. However, there is a new twist that involves its claims. Other airlines have also been audited because ICAO has not yet clarified the audit report. The Spice Jet’s claim has not yet been identified.

Spice Jet statement: It is proud to be the only scheduled Indian airline to be audited by ICAO

The International Civil Aviation Organization’s thorough examination of SpiceJet’s operations, safety procedures, and systems revealed that everything was in working order (ICAO). The comprehensive ICAO assessment firmly establishes SpiceJet’s credentials as a safe airline. ICAO is a specialized organization of the United Nations that works to promote the safe and orderly growth of international civil aviation globally.

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SpiceJet was the only scheduled Indian airline part of the audit conducted by ICAO under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach. The audit of SpiceJet safety systems helped India achieve its highest-ever safety ranking in the ICAO audit.

On 14 November 2022, the ICAO Auditing Committee visited the SpiceJet Head Office, from where all SpiceJet flights are controlled, and the SpiceJet flight dispatch offices at Delhi Airport. They audited and reviewed the various flight critical functions and operational areas such as flight planning, weather assessment, route planning, aircraft serviceability, operations to critical airports, pilot rostering systems, cabin safety procedures etc.

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Story twist: The ICAO has not yet provided clarification for its official statement.

According to TOI “ICAO teams perform industry inspections as part of an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission to confirm the efficacy of the civil aviation authority’s safety oversight. This will involve stopping by various operators. Visits to these operators are not at all an audit or inspection, the ICAO emphasized in its statement.

The ICAO is undoubtedly one of the aviation bodies that is least well-known, and the SpiceJet case has demonstrated how airlines may take advantage of this to their advantage, according to the senior official. The ICAO has also been contributing to the fight against this kind of false information. For instance, the Worldwide Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is careful to make it clear on its website that it is “not an international aviation regulator, just as Interpol is not an international police organization.” According to the statement, “we cannot arbitrarily close or restrict a nation’s airspace, discontinue travel options, or criticize airports or airlines for subpar customer service or safety records.” It explicitly states on its website that it never checks airlines.

According to the most recent ICAO release, “from November 9 to November 16, 2022, ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) team conducted an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) to India. An ICVM’s goal is to confirm advancements made in addressing the results of earlier USOAP initiatives.