Weeks after the Germanwings crash in the French Alps in which 150 people died, allegedly because the co-pilot deliberately flew the plane into a mountain, Air India pilots who are warring with the airline over salaries, have warned that they are "highly-stressed and financially over-burdened". This, they say in a letter to civil aviation regulator DGCA, is a "recipe disaster."
The DGCA has not responded so far to the complaint, which was sent yesterday.
A co-pilot who did not wish to be named told NDTV, "My sleep cycles are being affected. My mind is not at peace. All this contributes towards stress in the cockpit. I am not in the right state of mind to do my job professionally as is expected from me."
The pair are among about 30 pilots who graduated from the state-run pilot training institute Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy and hired by Air India as permanent employees. However, they claim that about three years after joining the airline, they were made contract workers, who are paid an ad-hoc salary every month which is never more than a third of their original salary. They also allege that the management has been threatening them with dire consequences if they don't agree with the new terms of their employment, which includes no sick leave.
Currently, no airline in India requires pilots to undergo psychological evaluations at period intervals - they only need to clear it once at the time of joining.
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