Two pilots have been suspended from an airline after they allegedly left an Airbus carrying 166 passengers on autopilot and air hostesses in charge while they slept in business class.
The Air India flight was travelling from Bangkok to New Delhi when both the co-pilot and the pilot left the cockpit after having spent some time instructing two flight attendants how to fly.
But the pair had to rush back and seize the controls of the A-320 after one of them accidentally turned off the autopilot setting, sources said.
On Friday, the national carrier suspended a pilot, the captain of the April 12 Airbus A-320 Bangkok- New Delhi flight, his co-pilot, and two flight attendants who had accidentally switched off the autopilot in the cockpit momentarily.
According to sources, pilot B.K. Soni and co-pilot Ravindra Nath napped in business class, leaving flight attendants Kanika Kala and J. Bhatt in charge of the plane.
A senior member of the cabin crew witnessed the entire drama and brought the matter to the notice of the airline's management. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has started a probe into the incident.
An Air India official admits the cockpit was in air hostess control for 20 minutes, sources say 40, but Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Mishra has said that the air hostesses stayed in the cockpit for the 'larger part of the three-hour flight'.
Air hostesses are allowed in the cockpit, but only for the amount of time it takes to serve a cup of tea or a snack.
Well, if none of the pilots are in the cockpit, then it can take quite a while to serve that cup of tea.
Of course, the real solution is to make the planes controllable through a smartphone, so the pilot can sit in business class all the time if he wants to. Or at home. Or at the beach.
I agree,... if we can fly drones from an air base thousands of miles away then I am sure airlines could gain have huge productivity improvements by conosolidating their pilots at their home base, flying all their planes by remote control !
After take off, a single pilot could take control of several planes.. simply monitoring and making minor adjustments, and then hand over to a seperate pilot for landing and parking.
The pax with the best flightsim points may park the aircraft.. for just five euro extra..
Take off and landing by remote... autopilot can be adjusted by the pursor..
the stewardess will be replaced by a coke machine..
I can already see press releases about how Europe's favourite airline opens a new 'Flight Center' in Bangladesh.
On a more serious note though, I can imagine that a pilot does not need to do much for most of the flight. Then a remote pilot could typically control multiple planes at once.
Air India denies the newspaper allegations. The airline says that there has always been at least one cockpit crew member in the cockpit ànd in command:
' State-run carrier Air India said Saturday it had suspended a pilot and two female flight attendants after a passenger jet's autopilot system was accidentally switched off "due to distraction".
The event occurred on an Air India Airbus flight to New Delhi from Bangkok last month carrying over 160 passengers and followed a series of other safety-related incidents involving the airline.
Air India denied media reports the pilot and co-pilot had taken a 40-minute cockpit break to snooze in business class seats and left two attendants in their places to operate the plane in their absence.
But it did say the pilot and two air hostesses had been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation and that the two airline attendants had overstayed the allowed length of time in the cockpit.
There was an "overstay of the cabin crew in the cockpit," the airline said, and "due to distraction the co-pilot had touched the autopilot disconnect button momentarily, but the same was connected back".
The airline did not reveal the nature of the distraction but the Times of India newspaper quoted an unnamed Air India source as saying the crew members' actions had "made a mockery of air safety".
Indian media reports alleged the pilots were giving the flight attendants flying lessons.
"At no point of time was the cockpit left unattended by the cockpit crew," the airline statement added.
Earlier this year, Air India suspended a senior pilot caught drunk just before he was to fly a passenger aircraft. Also in the last few years, authorities have discovered at least half a dozen Indian pilots flying aircraft using faked documents, including an Air India pilot.
Air India is the country's fourth-largest airline by market share and has been hit hard by rising fuel prices and fierce competition from private carriers that have added to its legacy of labour problems and crushing debts.
In March, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN aviation watchdog, expressed grave concerns about India's air safety, placing it among the 13 worst-performing nations.
An investigation into the auto-pilot incident is being carried out by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
"Following a safety violation, the airline has already suspended the people in question," said the agency.'
