The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on SpiceJet for training its Boeing 737 Max aircraft’s pilots on a faulty simulator as it could have adversely impacted flight safety, sources said.

The DGCA had last month barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from operating the Max aircraft after finding them not properly trained. The response sent by the airline was not found satisfactory, they said.

“The training being imparted by the airline could have adversely affected flight safety and hence was nullified,” they said.

Therefore, the DGCA has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on SpiceJet for using a faulty simulator to train their Max aircraft pilots, sources added.

Meanwhile, the Air Traffic Control Officers’ licence for three months has been suspended following an inquiry of a near mid-air collision between two IndiGo flights 6E 455 (Bangalore to Calcutta) and 6E 246 (Bangalore to Bhubaneswar) in January at Bangalore airport.

The two aircraft with passengers on board simultaneously took off from north and south Runway and at the closest point of conflict, the vertical and lateral separation between both aircraft was 100 feet (Standard 1000ft) and 0.9 NM (Standard 3NM).