Why an Air India pilot abandoned his passengers on the runway
The pilot said his shift had already ended, while the airline had no replacement. Working beyond stipulated hours flouts DGCA security guidelines.
A pilot of Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, refused to work beyond his duty hours and left 40 passengers "stranded" on the runway of the Jaipur airport for almost a day. If this does not come as a shocker, given the sharp rise of such incidents involving the apathy of the aviation players, the airline, too, did not arrange for another pilot who would fly the passengers to their destination.
Instead, some of the passengers of the Lucknow-Jaipur-Delhi flight were accommodated in hotels, while few were taken to Delhi by road and an alternative flight was arranged for the rest of them a day later.
“The pilot’s duty-time got over and therefore, he could not take the flight,” JS Balhara, director, Sanganer airport, Jaipur said to PTI. He said the pilot cannot exceed duty hours for safety reasons as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) norms.
This happened only two days after a video showing a member of the IndiGo ground staff assaulting a passenger surfaced on the internet.
In the video recording of the incident, the passenger can be seen arguing with the staffer about a delay. The IndiGo employee can be heard asking him not to use abusive language. And just as the passenger tries to board the coach, he is roughly pulled back and pushed to the ground. Even when he tries to get up, he is pinned down by the staffer.
While IndiGo in particular was criticised for the behaviour of its staff, the whole picture of the aviation industry, as far as customers’ experience is concerned, is worrisome.
According to International Air Transport Association, India’s domestic aviation sector grew the fastest in September as the country registered double-digit growth for 37 consecutive months. However, this growth is not being translated to better facilities and customer safety.
Flying, it seems, is a daunting task today. Apart from the pinch of fluctuating fares, passengers must contend with the “hiccups” of bad service and “air-pockets” of staff negligence which, in some cases — as witnessed during the recent IndiGo incident — border on cruelty. If you can bear with all these hurdles, then only can you reach your destination, albeit a bit late.
On November 3, shuttler PV Sindhu complained that an IndiGo staffer had misbehaved with her as she was carrying an oversized baggage that was not fitting into the overhead bin of the plane.
Sorry to say ..i had a very bad experience????when i was flying by 6E 608 flight to bombay on 4th nov the ground staff by name Mr ajeetesh(1/3)
— Pvsindhu (@Pvsindhu1) November 4, 2017
There are even instances where passengers report they were denied boarding despite confirmed tickets.
@republic confirm ticket from vistara for my parents denied the boarding without any reason pic.twitter.com/U4tXE0YlxB
— raj agarwal (@agarwalraj8) November 10, 2017
Passengers are also baffled about how to register a complaint.
Sir I filed complaint against spice jet at Goa airport, took 1 hr for me file, in the end the airport Authority tells sort out with airlines
— Alok Verma (@Alokvermma) November 8, 2017
In the latest fiasco, the “justification” that a pilot should not work beyond his duty hours owing to security reasons can be accepted only when the operator concerned has a replacement ready in hand so that passengers are not left to suffer to accommodate the shift timings of the pilots.
The Directorate of Civil Aviation has guidelines stipulating the duty hours, rest timing and frequency of work for the flight crew. An incident such as this, where a pilot had to leave his job as his duty hours ended, only reveals how operators are flouting well-detailed norms.
Delay in flight schedules owing to various reasons is no longer uncommon. The operators should be ready for any kind of emergency.
Since aviation is a consumer-driven industry, airline operators can’t go on inconveniencing their passengers. While flouting norms by asking the pilot to work beyond his duty hours would not have been an ideal situation, leaving 40 passengers nowhere, too, does not speak well of the thriving aviation industry.