Pilots Write To Aviation Minister Over "Knee-Jerk" License Suspensions

Days after the licence of the pilot of the New York-Delhi flight in which a passenger was accused of urinating on a co-passenger was cancelled, the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has written a letter to the Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, expressing concerns about such steps by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Moves like this were in violation of "the principles of fair play, impartiality, and natural justice", and such calls "are often taken without substantial evidence or justifiable reasons", the pilots' body said.

"The DGCA's knee-jerk reaction appears to have been triggered by sensational media reports, pressure to show swift results to the public, unsubstantiated allegations, a hasty response from the pilot's employer and the DGCA's rejection of his well-reasoned reply to a show cause notice," it said.

The FIP also said that the DGCA's decision was in variance of its own guidelines outlined in the Enforcement Manual and that the pilot was not heard by his own employer's internal complaints' committee. The basic principle of assuming the pilot's innocence until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt appears to have been ignored by the DGCA, it said.

"The most likely fallout of the DGCA's action on this pilot is bound to have largely negative ramifications on the travelling public. Pilots may, henceforth, not hesitate to exercise their statutory authority to restrain and deplane passengers or file FIRs at even the slightest pretext for fear of being reprimanded by the DGCA and of being accused of not performing their duties in accordance with unruly passenger-related regulations," it said.

The FIP requested the Civil Aviation Minister's immediate intervention to revoke the suspension of the pilot's licence and order a new fact-finding inquiry. It asked for a review of the powers of the DGCA which wielded "autocratic, colonial-era powers derived from archaic legislation that effectively makes it a rule-making, investigating, punishing and appellate authority all rolled into one" without adequate checks and balances.

Tata Group-owned Air India on Tuesday said the recent three-month suspension of the pilot's licence by the aviation regulator was "excessive". The DGCA last week fined the airline Rs 30 lakh over its handling of the incident on a November 26 flight in which a male passenger, while apparently inebriated, allegedly urinated on an elderly woman.

Air India said the matter should have been classified and reported as unruly behaviour by a passenger, but the flight crew and ground staff did not report it as such.

"Air India wishes to acknowledge the good faith efforts made by the crew to handle the situation effectively in real-time when not all facts were available," it said in a statement, adding that it deemed "the licence suspension of the commander excessive and will be assisting him with an appeal".