Air India pilots' body writes to DGCA about 'stressed' junior pilots in cockpit


This is the second time in the last 10 days that ICPA has red-flagged safety concerns in Air India to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
An Air India pilots' body has urged DGCA to look into the issue of deployment of a section of its "stressed" junior pilots in the cockpit, days after the Germanwings pane crash. 

Stating that some 30-odd co-pilots were being "forced to work overtime" without any remuneration, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), in a letter to the aviation regulator today alleged that "putting these highly-stressed and financially over-burdened co-pilots in the same cockpit... is a perfect recipe for disaster." 


ICPA represents the narrow-body Airbus A320 pilots in the airline. This is the second time in the last 10 days that ICPA has red-flagged safety concerns in Air India to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Earlier, it had asked DGCA to ground the airline's 26-year -old A-320 fleet citing safety concerns. 

The fresh communication to the regulator comes following the action of Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of the Germanwings flight who last week crashed the Airbus A320 plane into the French Alps killing himself and 149 others. Reports thereafter have said that 27-year-old Lubitz was suffering from depression but had hidden this from his airline, which is a subsidiary of Lufthansa. The incident has triggered a debate over pilots' mental health in India as well. 

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