Mumbai: Faced with an acute cabin crew shortage, Air India has been operating most of its flights with a skeletal crew, which means in the event of an emergency, on most of its aircraft, not every exit will be manned. But pressure is felt most by its cabin crew who work on AI's non-stop flights.
Flight attendants play a crucial role in emergency evacuations. Safety norms say that in event of an emergency, the aircraft should be evacuated in 90 seconds even if only half the number of exits are available for use. That is why AI's crew shortage is taxing on those rostered on its non-stop, daily, long-haul flights from Delhi to destinations like New York and Chicago. These have a 16 to 17 hour flying time and are operated with 342-seater Boeing 777-300ER aircraft that have ten exits. AI rostered ten crew members each on these flights that departed on Monday and Tuesday. The DGCA norm on flight duty time, dated June 14, 2014, states that for long-haul flights, airlines should roster one extra member apart from having enough crew to man each exit. So a minimum of eleven cabin crew members should have been onboard.
In 2011, the DGCA had mandated that long-haul flights should have a minimum of 15 cabin crew members. "The regulator then scaled down its norms but even the new ones are being flouted now," said an airline official.
16/02/15 V Manju/Times of India
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Flight attendants play a crucial role in emergency evacuations. Safety norms say that in event of an emergency, the aircraft should be evacuated in 90 seconds even if only half the number of exits are available for use. That is why AI's crew shortage is taxing on those rostered on its non-stop, daily, long-haul flights from Delhi to destinations like New York and Chicago. These have a 16 to 17 hour flying time and are operated with 342-seater Boeing 777-300ER aircraft that have ten exits. AI rostered ten crew members each on these flights that departed on Monday and Tuesday. The DGCA norm on flight duty time, dated June 14, 2014, states that for long-haul flights, airlines should roster one extra member apart from having enough crew to man each exit. So a minimum of eleven cabin crew members should have been onboard.
In 2011, the DGCA had mandated that long-haul flights should have a minimum of 15 cabin crew members. "The regulator then scaled down its norms but even the new ones are being flouted now," said an airline official.
16/02/15 V Manju/Times of India
