The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has recommended that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation conduct a one-time audit of training documentation for all fixed-wing pilots, with particular attention to non-scheduled operators, to confirm that every required exercise has been completed within each simulator session.

Among its recommendations, the AAIB put forward guidance directing non-scheduled and general aviation operators to establish defined frameworks ensuring that flight crew complete all training modules required under applicable regulations, with emergency procedures forming part of that obligation.

The recommendations were drawn from the AAIB's concluding report into the VT-DBL incident — a Learjet 45XR operated by VSR Ventures that came down at Mumbai airport on 14 September 2023, leaving all eight people aboard, comprising six passengers and two crew members, with injuries. The aircraft had been travelling from Visakhapatnam on a non-scheduled service and sustained total loss upon touching down at Mumbai airport. Damage to at least one taxiway light was also recorded as a result of the incident.

The AAIB's concluding report attributed the accident to the flight crew's decision to continue with an unstabilised approach in marginal weather, compounded by improper aircraft handling that brought on an aerodynamic stall at low altitude from which recovery proved impossible. The investigation identified two procedural lapses among the accident's contributory factors: the flight crew's failure to track airspeed against a rising low-speed cue as required, and a delay by the monitoring pilot in issuing a go-around callout in line with established procedure.

Among the contributing factors identified were deteriorating visibility conditions at the time of the approach, which reduced the flight crew's ability to rely on external visual references, a pronounced tailwind component, and pressure to touch down before a departure curfew then in effect at Mumbai airport.

The AAIB has also put forward a formal proposal urging the DGCA to incorporate stall recovery exercises in landing configuration into routine simulator sessions for flight crews. Under the framework proposed, every simulator training session would include an exercise in which pilots practise recovering from a complete aerodynamic stall — or responding to stall-warning activation — across climb, cruise, approach, and landing configurations.

The regulator has additionally been advised to conduct a one-time audit of training records held by fixed-wing pilots across non-scheduled and general aviation operators, with the aim of confirming that every required exercise has been completed during simulator sessions, and to issue tailored directives to those operators setting out clear methodologies for ensuring pilots complete all mandatory training, including procedures for handling emergency scenarios, in line with existing regulatory standards. The document further recommended that these procedures incorporate routine checks of pilot training records at set intervals, so that any gaps or inconsistencies in completed training can be identified and addressed.

The AAIB investigation report recommended that VSR Ventures take steps to familiarise flight crew with the importance of completing challenge-and-response checklists, verifying aircraft configurations, and confirming all systems meet standard operating requirements before departure. The report also urged the operator's maintenance and engineering teams to keep aircraft records — including technical and airframe log books — updated in line with established documentation procedures so that no entries go unrecorded.

The investigation body further recommended that the DGCA issue targeted directives to all non-scheduled and general aviation operators, requiring their internal audit processes to be conducted with genuine rigour, and that the practical effectiveness of those audits be assessed whenever oversight visits or surveillance checks are carried out on these organisations. The investigative body also put forward a recommendation that the aviation regulator direct all relevant operators to enforce compliance with established approach procedures, under which flight crews are trained to execute a go-around at any point during an approach that has not been stabilised.

Guidance from the Airports Authority of India to its air traffic controllers on upholding prescribed spacing between aircraft — a practice designed to reduce wake turbulence exposure — forms another element of the recommended response.