Thursday, June 14, 2018

AI pilots warn management over safety violation on Delhi-Madrid route

Mumbai: Raising serious concern over the issue of pilot fatigue and passenger safety, a union of Air India pilots has called out the airline for violating norms.
A strongly worded letter issued by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) to the airline management of Tuesday specifically cites lapses on the Delhi-Madrid route. It goes on to warn the management it will intimate the DGCA if any further violations occur.
AI-135, launched in 2016, flies between Delhi and Madrid thrice a week. Since Madrid and Mumbai are not air-linked by non-stop flights, one of the options for a flyer from Mumbai is to board this flight which transit halts in Delhi. The union says the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is often piloted by two “fatigued” pilots.
To check pilot fatigue, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has laid down work-rest norms (called Flight Duty Time Limitation: FDTL) for rostering pilots. Under these norms, for flights that are just over 10 hours, a three-pilot crew should be rostered.
But flight AI-135 takes less than 10 hours on some days and more than 10 hours on others. “In such a case, the DGCA norm is that if the flight takes more than 10 hours to be completed, then either the airline should try to complete the flight within 10 hours or roster three pilots,’’ said a senior commander.
In May, the union pointed out to AI management that AI-135 is routinely scheduled as a “two-pilot operation” with random instances of “three-pilot operation”. Between December 2016 and April 2018, flight AI-135 was operated 221 times. Out of this, on 116 days, or 52%, the flight exceeded 10 hours of block time. But in violation of safety norms, Air India often rosters only two pilots, alleged the union.
14/06/18 Manu V/Times of India

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