Air India fined Rs 99 lakh for pilot-rostering lapse that had led to non-qualified crew operating flight  | Business News

The incident pertains to a Mumbai-Riyadh flight in July that was to be operated by a training captain with a trainee pilot. A rostering change had to be made as the training captain scheduled to operate the flight took ill. However, instead of another training captain, a regular pilot was deployed instead. According to norms, trainee pilots are required to be paired with training captains when operating a flight. They cannot be paired with a pilot who is not a designated training captain.

According to sources in the know, both pilots operating the flight realised the scheduling goof-up during the flight, following which they filed a report with the airline, which then reported the incident to the DGCA.

“Taking cognizance of this incident, the regulator undertook comprehensive investigations into M/s Air India Limited operations including examination of documentations and spot check of M/s Air India Limited Scheduling Facility. Based on investigation, it was prima facie reveled that there are deficiencies and multiple violations to the regulatory provisions by several post holders and staff, which could significantly affect safety,” the regulator said.

The DGCA had issued show cause notices to a few of Air India’s senior officials on July 22, but the replies failed to provide “satisfactory justification” of the incident, resulting in enforcement action by the regulator.

“The national civil aviation regulator (DGCA) has imposed a financial penalty of Ninety Lakh rupees on M/s Air India…In addition, penalty of Rupees Six Lakhs and Rupees Three Lakhs respectively is imposed on the Director Operations and Director Training of M/s Air India. Further, the concerned pilot has been warned to exercise caution to prevent such occurrences in future,” the DGCA said.

The airline has so far not commented on this action by the DGCA.