Mumbai: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is likely to ground 132 pilots and 434 cabin crew members of national carrier Air India for allegedly skipping the mandatory pre and post-flight alcohol test.These crew members had regularly been “evading” the breath-analyser test over a period of time for flights to and from certain destinations such as Singapore, Kuwait, Bangkok, Ahmedabad and Goa, sources close to the development said.

 

Aviation regulator DGCA has already served an ultimatum to the Air India management over the alleged safety violations by the airline’s crew members ahead of its enforcement action, they said. “The DGCA already brought it to the notice of Air India management that its 132 pilots and 434 cabin crew have evaded the mandatory breath-analyser test. It is a safety violation and it (DGCA) is taking a suitable action against these crew members,” a source said.

Since the grounding of such a large number of crew members could cripple the airline’s narrow body operations, the DGCA is likely to enforce its action in a phased manner, said another source.

The DGCA had in February suspended the flying license of Air India’s then executive director (operations) Arvind Kathpalia for three months after an internal probe found him “guilty” of skipping breath-analyser test for a particular flight. Kathpalia is now head of operations and a Board member at the disinvestment-bound Air India.

 

As per DGCA, 224 pilots and crew members of various airlines failed the test in 2016 and 202 in 2015. — PTI  

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