India’s civil aviation regulator has fined flag carrier Air India more than $95,000 for allegedly violating a slew of flight time limitations rules for its pilots.
Rules on how many hours a pilot can work or how much rest that aircrew legally require between flights are fairly common around the world and are commonly referred to as Flight Time Limitations or FTL.
Designed to prevent fatigue, FTL rules can vary greatly from one country to another and in January, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation increased the minimum weekly rest period for pilots from 36 hours to 48 hours.
The decision was made on the back of a review of pilot fatigue, which was prompted by the death of a pilot for low-cost airline IndiGo who collapsed and died before reporting for a flight last August.
A spot check conducted by DGCA inspectors revealed that Air India had not been providing some of its pilots with the minimum required weekly rest.
The agency also found that Air India had failed to provide pilots with adequate rest before and after ultra-long-haul flights and during layovers between flights.
The audit also found wrongly marked training records, as well as incidences of pilots exceeding duty periods.
Following the audit, the DGCA served a show-clause on Air India on March 1, but the regulators said they weren’t satisfied with the reply from the Tata-controlled airline.
As a result, Air India has been slapped with a fine of 8 million rupees, which is equivalent to approximately US $95,650.
