The aviation safety regulator DGCA on Thursday suspended an Air India pilot-in-command for a year for allowing unauthorised entry into the cockpit. He permitted a female friend entry into the cockpit on a Chandigarh- Leh flight earlier this month.
The woman friend is an Indian Air Force pilot, and remained inside the cockpit throughout the flight on June 3.
The regulator also suspended the co-pilot for a month for neither preventing the entry of the non-staff member as well as for failing to report the violation. Air India had reported the incident to the DGCA and suspended the pilot in command for six months and the co-pilot for a month.
This is the second such incident aboard Air India in the past three months. In February, pilots invited a friend, who was also an airline staffer traveling on duty, into the cockpit while operating a Dubai-Delhi flight. Not only did the regulator suspend the pilot-in-command for three months, but it also imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on the airline for failing to bring the incident to the regulator’s attention.
