Mumbai: The muddle that a Muscat-Chennai flight landed in over an unscheduled crew change on Sunday indicates how Air India (AI) operates without proper back-up and coordination.
The AI flight was diverted to the city airport as the flight duty time limit (FDTL) of the crew had expired following a four-hour delay at Muscat, but it took the airline three hours to arrange for another team, leaving 72 passengers fuming.
The incident was another reminder of the lack of a strong standby system in AI because of a shortage of co-pilots—at least 250 more are required—and other crew.
24/04/13 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India
