As
we have finished the Middle East post, it’s back to life here in India, with
stories of what we’re getting up to plus the weird and the strange stories from
the papers.
Here’s
an article from last week (courtesy of the “Daily Mail”):
Air India suspends pilots
after they 'left Airbus...air hostesses in charge while they slept in business
class'
PUBLISHED:21:55 GMT, 3 May 2013| UPDATED:00:45
GMT, 5 May 2013
Flying
doesn't get more bizarre than this: an Airbus A-320 flying from Bangkok to New
Delhi with 166 passengers, co-pilot snoozing in business class, and pilot
teaching two air hostesses how to fly in the cockpit.
Things
could get worse, and they did, for sources say the pilot then left the air
hostesses in the driving seats as he too went for a business class snooze.
An
Air India official admits the cockpit was in air hostess control for 20
minutes, sources say 40, but Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Mishra has
said that the air hostesses stayed in the cockpit for the "larger part of
the three-hour flight".
The
time spent by the pilot in teaching the two air hostesses to fly thus remains
anybody's guess.
On
Friday, the national carrier suspended a pilot, the captain of the April 12
Airbus A-320 Bangkok- New Delhi flight, his co-pilot, and two flight attendants
who had accidentally switched off the autopilot in the cockpit momentarily,
risking the lives of everybody on board.
According
to sources, pilot BK Soni and co-pilot Ravindra Nath napped in business class,
leaving flight attendants Kanika Kala and J Bhatt in charge of the plane.
A
senior member of the cabin crew witnessed the entire drama and brought the
matter to the notice of the airline's management. The Directorate General of
Civil Aviation (DGCA) has started a probe into the incident.
Air
hostesses are allowed in the cockpit, but only for the amount of time it takes
to serve a cup of tea or a snack. It is normal practice, again, to call a cabin
crew member into the cockpit if one of the pilots is to leave it for some
reason.
By
no stretch of the imagination, or rules, does that extend beyond a few minutes.
"It is a serious matter. We are investigating the case," Mishra said.
The
flight took off from Bangkok at 8.55 am.
Half-an-hour
and 33,000 feet into the flight, First Officer Ravindra Nath excused himself
from the cockpit to visit the washroom.
He
asked flight attendant J Bhatt to occupy the co-pilot's seat in his absence.
Minutes
after Nath exited, Captain B.K. Soni called Kanika Kala and asked her to take
his seat. Soni did not leave the cockpit immediately, however.
As
one source put it, he spent some time teaching the two air-hostesses how to
operate the aircraft before joining Nath for a business class siesta. After the
flying lesson, Soni put the plane on auto-pilot, leaving the stewardesses by
themselves in the cockpit for the next 40- odd minutes.
Auto-pilot
does not mean pilots can leave the cockpit.
They
have to be present to monitor the flight path and can turn off auto-pilot mode
if required.
A
statement issued by Air India on Friday stressed that "at no point of time
was the cockpit left unattended by the cockpit crew".
It
then went to say: "During the incident, due to distraction the co-pilot
had touched the auto pilot disconnect button momentarily. But the same was
connected back."
Captain
Mohan Ranganathan, a member of Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council, a
government-appointed aviation safety panel, blamed the "lackadaisical
attitude" of the DGCA for the increase in air safety violations.
"The
DGCA should be held responsible for the increase in such cases as they have
failed time and again to effectively enforce safety guidelines," said
Ranganathan.
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