'Knee jerk': Pilots write to Jyotiraditya Scindia after licence cancelled in Air India 'pee-gate' case
Apart from a fine of Rs 30 lakh, the DGCA suspended the pilot's licence and imposed a separate fine of Rs 3 lakh on Air India's director of in-flight services in connection with the Shankar Mishra case.
FollowThe Federation of Indian Pilots on Wednesday (January 25) wrote to Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia against the decisions announced by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in cancelling the licence of pilots.
The DGCA had recently cancelled the licence of the pilot of the Air India New York-New Delhi flight where Shankar Mishra urinated on an elderly woman in a drunken state.
In its letter, the Federation of Indian Pilots said, "The DGCA's reaction is knee-jerk, triggered by sensational media reports." The pilot's body also asked as to why DGCA had not conducted its own independent inquiry into the incident.
"The basic principle of assuming the pilot's innocence until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt appears to have been ignored by the DGCA," the pilots' body said.
It also reportedly said that the accountable manager of the same organisation has been spared, while the pilot was punished.
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"Pilots may, henceforth, not hesitate to exercise their statutory authority to restrain and deplane passengers of file FIRs at even the slightest pretext for fear of being reprimanded by the DGCA and of being accused of not performing their duties in accordance with unruly passenger related regulations," the letter said.
"This is definitely not the type of work environment warranted in a customer centric and service oriented industry," it added.
Apart from a fine of Rs 30 lakh, the DGCA suspended the pilot's licence and imposed a separate fine of Rs 3 lakh on Air India's director of in-flight services in connection with the Shankar Mishra case.
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A separate fine has been imposed on Air India for the second urination incident on a Paris-New Delhi flight. Amid these back-to-back incidents, Air India changed its in-flight liquor service.
