AI pilots grounded for being too loud

Three Air-India commanders have been taken to task for allegedly being too noisy while travelling first-class on a Frankfurt-Mumbai flight. One of them, Capt Kshmata Bajpai, has been temporarily barred from flying. Her colleagues, Capt Suraj Prakash and a co-pilot, have been let off with a warning after being de-rostered for a few days.
Sources in Air India say the reason for such swift action was that a complaint against the trio was made by their co-passenger Jaan Albrecht, the CEO of Star Alliance, an international group of airlines of which Air-India is trying to become a part.
Bajpai and Prakash were seated in the first class section of AI 126 in April, and the first-officer, who was travelling business class, would come and sit on a hollow bin in the aisle when he joined them for meals. “They were loud and noisy. There was disregard for decorum as they ate and drank alcohol,” a source said that Albrecht, who was sitting next to them, wrote in his complaint given to the airline’s Managing Director Arvind Jadhav.
“He said that they were laughing loudly and also passing comments against AI management and civil aviation minister Praful Patel,” the source added. The pilots had no idea who their travelling companion was, and learnt his identity only after landing.
Two cabin crew, who were on duly in first-class, allegedly did not ask the pilots to refrain from being loud for the sake of the other passengers.
The commander of the flight, K Tarapore, was asked for a detailed explanation. The two members of the cabin crew were sent to corrective training and taken off duty for about a fortnight.
24/07/10 Aneesh Phadnis/Mumbai Mirror

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