Higher workload for pilots could put flyers at risk

Mumbai: The aviation regulator allowed Air India and Jet Airways to increase their pilots' duty hours without studying how this might influence their health and alertness, a Right to Information application filed by a pilots' union has revealed. When asked if it had consulted its own or independent specialists before doing this two years ago, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation replied that it had taken the decision based on discussions with senior managers of the airlines.
Normally, airlines cannot ask pilots to work more than nine hours at a stretch in a day and not more than 30 hours a week.
But the airlines appear to have asked for the amendment purely for commercial reasons, the regulator's response, which came last month and of which HT has a copy, reveals.
16/09/10 Soubhik Mitra/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2010