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By Poulomi Saha: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India’s aviation regulator, ordered a probe into a complaint that an Air India pilot allegedly allowed a female friend to enter the cockpit during a Delhi-Dubai flight. On Friday, a crew member, the pilot, his co-pilot, along with the passenger on board the flight on the eventful day, appeared before the DGCA.
This came after the aforesaid crew member had complained in late March that the commander of the flight had entertained a lady friend in the cockpit of the aircraft, in violation of laid-down rules.
WHAT HAPPENED?
In a complaint initially sent to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson and the airline’s head of flight safety on March 3, the cabin crew member wrote she felt shocked at the “threatening” and “aggressive” nature of the flight commander since the incident took place.
The incident took place on board flight AI915 Delhi-Dubai flight on February 27. The complainant alleged that the pilot-in-command flouted guidelines to have a female passenger, who he said was a friend, escorted into the cockpit from the economy class.
At first instance, the crew member in question raised the concern that this would be a violation of DGCA rules because the passenger had not undergone a breath analyser test. Prior to this, the captain of the flight had also sought to upgrade his friend from economy to business class, but was told by the cabin supervisor that business class was full.
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As per the complaint, the captain of the flight also ordered the crew to bring in pillows from the bunk and place them in the cockpit so that his passenger guest could be comfortable.
The complainant said, “He said the cockpit should appear welcoming, warm and comfortable as though he was preparing his living room for a lady friend.”
In addition, the pilot asked for his friend to be served snacks and alcohol in the cockpit. To this, the complainant objected and said she was not comfortable serving alcohol in the cockpit. This allegedly changed the captain’s entire attitude and he was rude with the said crew member henceforth on the flight, the crew member said.
The lady passenger, as per the report lodged, spent close to an hour in the cockpit, where she was served business-class food and snacks, on the pilot-in-command’s orders. The former’s presence in the cockpit for such a long time was reportedly noticed by another passenger in the first row of the flight who enquired if she was a pilot or a passenger.
The crew member who lodged a complaint said she noticed that when she went to the cockpit, the co-pilot or the First Officer was fully reclined and asleep with pillow, while the captain was turned around facing the rear observer station, chatting with his lady friend.
Upon landing in Dubai, the pilot in question allegedly accompanied his lady friend to Immigration.
The complainant said that this entire time, neither the commander nor the First Officer had met the cabin crew of the flight, as per practice. In fact, the complainant claimed that before the flight’s take-off from Delhi, the crew had waited to greet the two pilots “beyond their reporting time” as per protocol but left when they did not come. On board, they were told it would happen “later”.
On the return flight, and even after touchdown in Delhi, the captain of the flight was “aggressive” and became “abusively hysterical”, the complaint copy reads. Additionally, he has been accused of making “sexist unbecoming remarks against female crew members.”
AVIATION REGULATORS’S ACTION AGAINST AIR INDIA PILOT
After the first complaint was sent to Air India’s CEO on March 3, it was forwarded to DGCA on 31 March, after which the regulator sought the appearance of the concerned persons before it on Friday.
Earlier in the day, when India Today Television reached out to Air India, a spokesperson replied, “We have taken serious note of the reported incident and investigations are underway in Air India. The matter is reported to the DGCA and we are cooperating with their investigations.”
The airline, which has been under fire in recent months over in-flight incidents, added, “We have zero tolerance in aspects related to the safety and well being of our passengers and will take requisite action.”
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