NEW DELHI: Shockers from the Mumbai landing-sans-ATC-nod incident don't seem to end. It has now emerged that the captain — who was grounded by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) on Friday afternoon for the unauthorized landing in Mumbai earlier that morning — operated yet another return flight from Mumbai a day later!
The blatant disregard of DGCA's grounding order happened when the captain operated a Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai (AI 603) flight on Saturday morning. The airline took him off flying duty only after he returned to Mumbai, when TOI had frontpaged the story on the incident and the fact that the pilots involved in that had been de-rostered.
A senior DGCA official said: "This is unacceptable and we will probe how did the airline let a grounded captain operate flights."
An AI spokesman said: "The DGCA communication had not reached us till the time the captain operated the Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai flight on Saturday. After returning to Mumbai, the captain met DGCA officials and we got to know of his grounding order. He was then de-rostered (taken off flying duty)." Interestingly the airline let the grounded captain to operate the return Bangalore-Mumbai flight also, by when the news of his de-rostering order had become public.
Airline sources indicated how DGCA directives for de-rostering licenced staffers — pilots, engineers and cabin crew — are taken lightly. "This incident of pilots landing without ATC clearance happened on Friday morning and the DGCA action came happened by late afternoon. But till we get the grounding order in writing, why should we act just on hearsay?" said an official.
CVR may hold key
The real reason for delayed response by airlines, however, may be completely different. Cockpit voice recorders (CVR) have a recording loop of three hours. Which means, they retain only last three flying hours' conversation in the cockpit by recording over previous statements in a loop.
"CVRs contain exactly what was happening inside cockpits when any incident happens. Not reporting an incident on time means the plane's CVR will not be seized and the plane will go for other flights, erasing the conversation inside the cockpit at the time when the incident happened. That's why all airlines delay reporting incidents and taking action against their pilots," said an industry veteran who has taken part in many investigations.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-15/india/38555204_1_dgca-action-pilots-captain
The blatant disregard of DGCA's grounding order happened when the captain operated a Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai (AI 603) flight on Saturday morning. The airline took him off flying duty only after he returned to Mumbai, when TOI had frontpaged the story on the incident and the fact that the pilots involved in that had been de-rostered.
A senior DGCA official said: "This is unacceptable and we will probe how did the airline let a grounded captain operate flights."
An AI spokesman said: "The DGCA communication had not reached us till the time the captain operated the Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai flight on Saturday. After returning to Mumbai, the captain met DGCA officials and we got to know of his grounding order. He was then de-rostered (taken off flying duty)." Interestingly the airline let the grounded captain to operate the return Bangalore-Mumbai flight also, by when the news of his de-rostering order had become public.
Airline sources indicated how DGCA directives for de-rostering licenced staffers — pilots, engineers and cabin crew — are taken lightly. "This incident of pilots landing without ATC clearance happened on Friday morning and the DGCA action came happened by late afternoon. But till we get the grounding order in writing, why should we act just on hearsay?" said an official.
CVR may hold key
The real reason for delayed response by airlines, however, may be completely different. Cockpit voice recorders (CVR) have a recording loop of three hours. Which means, they retain only last three flying hours' conversation in the cockpit by recording over previous statements in a loop.
"CVRs contain exactly what was happening inside cockpits when any incident happens. Not reporting an incident on time means the plane's CVR will not be seized and the plane will go for other flights, erasing the conversation inside the cockpit at the time when the incident happened. That's why all airlines delay reporting incidents and taking action against their pilots," said an industry veteran who has taken part in many investigations.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-15/india/38555204_1_dgca-action-pilots-captain
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