Air India flight delay turns into pilot-crew slanging match

Mumbai: The blame game between the pilots and the cabin crew of Air India’s (AI) Saturday flight to New York, which got delayed by 12 hours, has intensified. While the cabin crew say they walked out of the plane since the pilot extended their duty hours in violation of international flight safety norms, the AI management mantains the pilot was well within his rights to do so.
On March 6, AI 141 from Mumbai to New York, which is usually not late by even five minutes, got delayed by 12 hours. The reason was a technical snag. “The engineers rectified the problem, but they did not certify the plane to be flight worthy. The captain refused to fly without certification and the plane was on the ground till 4.30am,” said a source from the Air India Cabin Crew Association (AICCA).
This created problems with the flight duty time limit (FDTL) of the cabin crew, which can fly a maximum of 20 hours under the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) rules, while the flight takes 18 hours to reach New York. “The captain then issued a dispensation increasing the FDTL by four hours. This meant the crew would be flying for 24 hours straight,” the source said.
The crew then alighted from the plane at 4.30am, and walked off.
This tussle between the crew and the captain also inconvenienced the passengers as they had to sleep in the plane till 6am.
11/03/10 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Air India - International Mar 2010, NACIL Mar 2010