Aviation Regulator Wants To Clamp Down On In-Flight Selfies

New Delhi: Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) may soon ask airlines to strictly enforce a ban on taking pictures inside the cockpit and other critical areas of the airplane.

While existing rules also put some restrictions on in-flight photography, the regulator will come out with a detailed set of guidelines in a few days in the wake of certain cases coming to the light about possible security risks from clicking cockpit selfies.

With increased use of smart devices, there have been many instances of travellers as well as crew members, including pilots, clicking photographs inside flights.

Against this backdrop, the DGCA is working on guidelines for airlines that would cover various aspects of photography, including selfies, inside an aircraft.

A senior DGCA official today said the regulator would be soon coming with a circular in this regard, mostly likely next week.

Advertisement

"It will be a safety circular for providing guidance to airlines," the official said, even as he made it clear that there are already rules in place for "photograph at aerodromes or from aircraft in flight".

According to the official, the circular would cover issues such as whether photography, including selfies, is permitted in the cockpit.

Advertisement

The aspects like at what stage of a flight can ground photography be permitted might also included in the circular, he added.

Recently, six IndiGo pilots came under the scanner of the DGCA for allegedly taking pictures in the cockpit with family members.

Advertisement

Under the Aircraft Rules, 1937, photography from an aircraft in flight is prohibited unless there is prior permission from authorities concerned.