Mumbai: The Director General of Civil Aviation has instituted an inquiry into a night flight undertaken by a Pawan Hans chopper on December 27 last year to take Union Minister of State for Power Jyotiraditya Scindia to Bhopal and Indore from Delhi despite the pilot-incommand not being qualified to fly after sunset.
This gross violation of VVIP security was reported to the DGCA by the Pawan Hans Pilots Guild on January 2. The guild has filed a parallel complaint with Pawan Hans chairman and managing director Anil Srivastava.
The complaint also points that the pilot-in-command Captain J B Singh undertook the flight even though he was on his mandatory off period of three weeks after performing a duty of six weeks away from home on various detachments. When this fact was pointed out to him by his co-pilot K S Dahiya, he was over-ruled by Captain Singh.
08/01/13 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror
