Pilot death brings to the fore Indian, expa med disparity

Mumbai: The death of a Continental Airlines 60-year-old commander during a Brussels-Newark-cross-Atlantic flight on Thursday has brought to focus
the disparity when it comes to medical tests conducted on Indian pilots and their expatriate counterparts.
Simply put, if your flight is operated by an Indian commander over the age of 60 years, you can be sure that the pilot has undergone age-specific additional medical checks like treadmill test and lipid profile test. However, if you have an expatriate commander on board, it means that your pilot has not undergone the rigorous medical tests his Indian colleague has. Indian carriers have a total of about 700 expatriate pilots on its roll, with most of them flying as commanders. Though statistics are unavailable, going by a conservative estimate, about 55%-60% of them are above 60 years of age. "A large majority of expat pilots on wide-bodied aircraft like B 747 and A 330, which do long haul flights like Mumbai-London for instance, are above 60 years of age,'' said a senior commander.
The disparity in medical tests conducted on pilots over the age of 60 years in India and the US set in at the time when the two countries decided to extend the age bar for retirement from 60 years to 65 years. "When India did it four years ago, it introduced a number of additional tests for pilots over 60 years of age to ascertain that they were entirely fit for commercial flying duties,'' said a source. In India, pilots who cross the age of 55 years, have to undergo treadmill test and a complete lipid profile test once every two years. After crossing 60 years, other tests, like prostrate test, are added to the medical to-do list.
"In the US, when they passed the 65-year retirement rule, one of the conditions was that pilots would not have to undergo any additional medical checks. While in India, after the age of 55 years, pilots need to do a lot of additional tests and after 60 years, some more, which an expatriate commander working in India does not have to undergo,'' said Capt Mohan Ranganathan, an air safety expert. "It's about time that the director-general of civil aviation (DGCA) introduced the same procedures that other countries follow where any pilot has to undergo the local medical tests to obtain local licences.''
20/06/09 Manju V/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Jun 2009, Safety Jun 2009