New Delhi: Two pilots working for Alliance Air in Kolkata have violated basic safety rules in the last three months, putting hundreds of lives at risk. When NDTV accessed documents that established this, we alerted the Executive Director of the airline, Devi Sharan. That was more than three weeks ago. Records show both pilots are still being used.
Alliance Air - which is a subsidiary of national carrier Air India - operates low-cost flights popular between cities like Kolkata and others in the North East.
Records from the airline show that on March 20, a pilot operating a flight from Shillong to Kolkata decided at the last minute to change the runway he would use to take-off. Close to 30 passengers were on board. Records show there were strong winds near the airport. So the pilot decided to abandon Runway 04, used for virtually every plane taking off from Shillong. That's because the other runway -22 - is very short and faces a range of hills, factors that could lead to a crash. Alliance Air in fact forbids its pilots from using Runway 22 - a diktat the pilot ignored at the last minute.
The safety violation was noted by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the Shillong Airport but it did not file a complaint with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the regulatory body for all airlines. When asked why, a representative for the Air Traffic Control said the final decision for how to take-off rests with the pilot. Odd, given that the ATC also agrees that it advises airlines not to use the highly-risky Runway 22.
16/06/11 Kashish, Sandeep Phukan/NDTV.com
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