Is your pilot fit to fly?

Mumbai: The next time you fly, remember that the efficiency of your pilot is as much of a mystery to you as it is to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Grappling with an alarming shortage of manpower, the aviation authority is unable to track the license validity of all pilots, their medical fitness details and flight duty timings all crucial aspects of safe piloting with absolute accuracy.
DGCA officials revealed almost all spot-checks conducted by them threw up cases of violations of flight duty timing limitations (FDTL) or pilot fitness norms.
The situation became more grim in July 2007 after pilots refused to accept a new DGCA civil aviation requirement (CAR) that gave them more rest than stipulated in the previous FDTL rule. Though the new rule took into account the Circadian Rhythms (the sleep/wake cycle), the pilots moved the court and got a stay order, thus, reverting to the original rule.
But now with experts, airlines and pilots rooting for a modern system, this could soon change. Airlines now plan to migrate from the present manual system to an improvised, automated system. If their proposal goes through, pilots flying in India will have to swipe cards containing all the essential details before embarking on a flight.
Members of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), comprising Air India pilots, are also backing the modernisation.
Upon swiping, the reader will generate an approval slip, which will be essential to board the aircraft.
The card will then be swiped after the flight against a reader installed inside the aircraft, which will provide actual flight time details. The card will automatically deduct the flight duration plus 45 minutes for before and 15 minutes for after the flight, as per the FDTL rules.
01/06/09 Aditya Anand/MiD Day

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Categories: Safety Jun 2009