Flight Safety - India unsafe

350 commercial pilots flying skies with invalid licences (India)
This test is required to be given every six months and Pilots are not supposed to fly without a valid PPC. The action will be decided when the data from all airlines comes in.

NEW DELHI: Indian airlines currently have almost 350 commercial pilots flying the skies with lapsed or invalid licences due to their failure to appear in exams that have to be given after every few months to remain eligible to operate in the cockpit.

Senior Air India pilot shows up for flight with expired licence

Hijacking call sparks alert on AI flights to Mumbai, Ahmedabad

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is now contemplating action against the heads of training department of these airlines, while asking the carriers to complete the required training of pilots in a time-bound manner.

Flight delays plague Air India, furious passengers take to Twitter, FB


New Delhi: Passengers travelling on the Air India network faced difficulties all of last week as many flights got delayed - some beyond two hours - or were clubbed with other flights.

This also lead to offloading of some pre-booked passengers. Social media was flooded with angry reactions from passengers - instances of flight delays were largely on the Delhi-Mumbai route, the busiest domestic route for airlines, and the worst delays were seen over the weekend.

This morning, a Delhi-Lucknow flight was delayed beyond two hours and a passenger tweeted: "Monday morning blues. Air India delays departure of 7 am flight to Lucknow by 2 hours. Airline staff have no answer when asked why".

Another harried passenger took to Facebook last night, saying her flight, AI 688 Delhi-Mumbai, was scheduled for 6.30 am but was later clubbed with a 7 am flight. "When I was coming from Mumbai to Delhi, my 9 pm flight was re-scheduled twice to 11.40 pm".

Five flights were rescheduled/clubbed with other flights from Delhi yesterday, six each were re-scheduled or clubbed on Saturday and Friday.