Air India with unstable pilots? - Curt Lewis

 

Sending `unstable' AI commander back into cockpit risky, say pilots

MUMBAI: The Air India senior executive commander who put the lives of over 200 passengers onboard a Delhi-Paris flight at risk by making a Boeing 787 aircraft climb beyond its safe limits had got into trouble in the past too with the authorities over his behaviour. The case has highlighted the need for airlines to develop an approach where such behaviour patterns among its pilots or even engineers and other employees whose jobs could have an impact on air safety are not overlooked.

Dr Harish Shetty , a psychiatrist, revealed that pilots seek help from psychologists and psychiatrists who are not empaneled with their airlines. "They avoid their official doctors. Quite a few are on psychotropic medications without the knowledge of their employers," Dr Shetty said, making a case for mandatory testing. "The DGCA should make urine or blood testing mandatory for psychotropic medications and addictive drugs apart from alcohol screening. Surprise random urine tests should be carried out," he added. "Depression has increased manifold and all groups are affected, every job place is vulnerable. High-risk professionals need to be assessed periodically like those wielding arms, motormen, pilots etc," Dr Shetty said.

In the AI case, despite a number of cases which proved that the commander was given to sudden bouts of anger and erratic behaviour, the airline didn't red-flag the matter till the April 28 "willful negligence" incident, when he had the Dreamliner aircraft begin a climb up to the altitude where it could stall. "Even after the co-pilot reported about the incident, the airline didn't handle it seriously ," said an airline official.
The matter has once again brought to the fore the air safety issue and pilots with mental health issues. In March 2015, a suicidal co-pilot locked out the commander and flew a Germanwings A320 aircraft into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.Currently , medical tests for pilots only test them for physical problems and mental health issues go unnoticed or unreported.

The committee formed to inquire into the April 28 AI incident had submitted its report a month ago, in which it recommen ded that a psychiatric assessment be carried out by the Indian Airforce doctors and after the relevant training, the commander should fly as a co-pilot for six months during which he should be under observation. Among the past cases considered by the committee was the order given by the then DGCA director, air safety , three years ago, wherein this commander was deemed unfit to become an examiner on Boeing 777 and then on the Boeing 787 because of his hot-headed, unstable nature. Then, a year ago, the AI staff at Birmingham airport refused to handle flights operated by this commander, citing his mercurial nature.The airline however constituted another committee to relook the matter, even as the said commander remained grounded. After TOI carried a report about the case on Friday , the Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked AI to hand over the documents pertaining to this case, said sources.

This is not the only issue. There are other air-safety concerns too. For example air-craft collision. We are inducting more air-crafts and traffic is getting conjested.

Pilots who spoke to TOI after the report appeared questioned the committee's decision to allow the commander to fly as a copilot. "He will be very disgruntled to carry out a co-pilot's job functions when a pilot who is junior to him operates as the commander. It will add unwanted stress in the cockpit," said a commander, requesting anonymity .

Capt D S Mathur, former CMD and former director (operations), Air India, too had said that letting unstable pilots fly even as co-pilots would be detrimental to air safety. "Why is the airline being lenient? They are playing with the lives of passengers," Capt Mathur said.