Air India pilots go rogue!

April 2016 is just over a week old, and already Air India pilots have made news thrice this week. And as it generally is with Air India in such cases, they've made news for all the wrong reasons!

Representational image only, courtesy Outlook India

It was reported here on 1 April 2016 that an Air India commander refused to fly because he didn't want to fly to the destination the flight was schedule for! This was on a Mumbai-Bhopal flight, relaunched as part of their new summer schedule. The commander thought that the flight was to Delhi. When he realised that it was bound for Bhopal, he refused to fly!

The commander was suspended from duties on charges of gross indiscipline, following which the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, Ashwani Lohani, issued a statement that also said, "Air India does not tolerate indiscipline."

One would have thought that such messaging would deter others from similar misdemeanors, but the commander in question seems like a saint when compared to this pilot who kept an entire planeload of passengers and crew waiting, because he wanted to fly with a specific lady co-pilot. And apparently, his request for specific crew wasn't the first time he's made such a request. As it happens, this particular pilot is/was apparently serving notice period, having submitted his resignation earlier in the month. Maybe he assumed the co-pilot was part of his exit package!

And of course, there's the case of two pilots fighting of updating a log, on the Jaipur-Delhi segment. And as is always the case with Air India, for one of the pilots, this isn't his first fight either!

Of course, this isn't the first time that Air India pilots have gone rogue - with or without just cause. In September last year, 30 pilots certified to fly Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet quit, virtually en masse. And that number represented a quarter of the pilot strength that was type-rated for the B787.

And a year or so back, an Air India pilot came drunk to the Sharjah airport to operate a flight.

Air India is trying its best to get back on its feet after years of unprofitable operations compounded by bureaucracy, red tape and nepotism. While it isn't my day job to interact with them, I've spoken to several AI pilots - in-flight, at the gate or on the ground - and I've found them generally to be a bunch of good guys. However, these rogue pilots are deplorable, and end up giving everyone else a bad name.