NEW DELHI: An Air India pilot was recently forced to walk straight out of detention and operate a long international flight back home — and freedom! In the process, AI reportedly violated safety rules by sending an unrested pilot from detention to the cockpit.
This unprecedented situation arose when an AI 155 touched down in Moscow on November 7. According to sources, the immigration at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport detained the commander of that flight on charges that he had 'falsified' his passport. They confiscated his passport and detained the captain at the airport. The commander wanted to be sent back home on the plane he had flown into Russia but the aircraft had by then taxied out.
The Russian immigration doubts against the AI pilot were misplaced. The senior captain had got his Russian visa on October 29 and operated a Delhi-Moscow flight that very day and commandeered an incident-free return flight.
"I was contacted by the commander's relative and informed about his wrongful detention. I asked our operations to do the needful to immediately secure his release," said AI chief Rohit Nandan. After Nandan's intervention, some Indian officials went to Moscow airport but could not satisfy the authorities there about the veracity of his papers.
As a result, the pilot had to spend 26 hours in detention. AI then asked him to fly back to Delhi by operating flight number 156 on November 9. "AI should have sent an extra pilot to operate AI 156 on that day and have the commander fly to Delhi as a passenger as he was in detention and did not get any rest there apart from suffering tremendous mental agony," said a source.
The commander, on return in Delhi, told the airline that he barely had any sleep during the 26-hour detention and by asking him to operate the long Moscow-Delhi flight, AI reportedly made him violate flight safety norms that require only fully rested pilots to fly. The commander is learnt to have asked AI to inform the directorate general of civil aviation that he had violated "flight and duty time limitations" norms by operating that flight under instructions from the airline.
Despite this alleged violation, AI is learrnt to have issued an appreciation letter to the pilot. The airline did not respond to a query on this alleged violation.
AI pilots are upset at the fact that the commander had to spend such a long time in detention at Moscow airport and that the state could not come to his rescue despite his having all genuine papers. They are angry with the airline for making such a harassed man operate a long flight back to India.
Moscow, incidentally, has become a hotspot for AI crew. This September, the cabin crew of a Delhi-Moscow flight had to cool their heels in detention at Domodedovo Airport for close to 18 hours before being allowed to enter the city. The air hostesses had been granted Russian visas effective from the next day but the airline had sent them a day earlier.
- Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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