Oh Air India! What have you done now?

Air India seems to have a propensity to chase after bad publicity. Maybe they truly believe that there's no such thing as bad advertising, only bad advertisements. Even so, they may have taken things a little too far with their pilots' recent misdemeanours (yes, in the plural).

Earlier this year, we brought you the story of three separate incidents within the span of a week.

• A pilot refused to fly the plane because he didn't want to go to that destination.
• Another pilot kept a planeload of folks waiting, so that he could fly along with a particular lady co-pilot.
• A first officer abused and beat up the commander because he was asked to update the flight log.

But that isn't all. There are tons of stories - stuff of lore, really - about Air India pilots going rogue. Heck, one chap even let two of his cabin crew fly the plane for a bit! Things have come to such a pass, that the Air India chairman recently carried out an inspection at Delhi Airport, possibly on rodent watch!

The Moody Blues

So it should come as no surprise when, according to a Times of India report, an Air India pilot manipulated the onboard flight management computer and initiated a climb beyond the aircraft’s altitude capability, on a Delhi-Paris flight on Air India's Boeing 787 aircraft, in April this year. The senior Air India executive commander is, apparently, prone to sudden, psychotic mood swings. The news was reported only yesterday in the Indian media.

This could have resulted  in what's known as flying into the coffin corner - flying at an altitude where a plane's controls are pretty useless except at a very high speed. Apparently, the aircraft nearly came to stall. Needless to say, a huge risk. This is the same phenomenon suspected to be behind the Air France 447's crash over the Atlantic, in 2009. 

The Times of India report (quoted above) goes on to state

An inquiry was ordered, which subsequently discovered a number of other incidents where the commander's behaviour had come across as mercurial, unstable and temperamental, a trait considered unsafe for a pilot," a source said...

...The inquiry panel said it would be unsafe to overlook his behaviour pattern and recommended a psychiatric assessment by IAF doctors...

...However, the airline, instead has constituted a new panel. "Two of the three members in this panel are known to be close to the commander and they might let him go scot free and let him back into the cockpit in command," said a source.

Representational image only, courtesy Outlook India

Two strikes

In other news, Air India has taken strict measures with regard to its pilots who show up drunk for work. The pilots will now have to bear their own training costs, if caught drunk...for the second time!

So, Air India believes it is OK to show up drunk once, just don't repeat that offence. Even if you do, as long as you're able to pay your own way through re-training, I assume you can rinse-repeat this charade.

There are times when I'd like to give AI some credit for trying to turn their fortunes (financial and otherwise) around, but this isn't one of those times. I can't even begin to imagine Air India's lack of professionalism and focus on issues such as this. 

Shameful, Air India. Really shameful!