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NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India's air safety watchdog on Monday suspended from a senior Air India pilot, who is also the carrier's director of operations, for a three-year-old airline. Delhi.
FILE PHOTO: The Air India logo is seen on the facade of its office in Mumbai, India, July 7, 2017. Picture taken July 7, 2017. REUTERS / Danish Siddiqui
This is the second time Arvind Kathpalia has been in trouble over alcohol tests. It has been suspended for a long time in 2017 for a very long time.
"The privileges of its license have been suspended for a period of three years from 11.11.2018," said spokesman at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement.
Kathpalia, who also sits on the board, could not be reached for comment.
On Sunday, he said that he would be challenged by the results of the tests and claimed that he was the victim of internal fire.
An Air India spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
India is one of the world's fastest growing markets with about 20 percent growth in the number of domestic passengers.
More than 1 million flights from the country last fiscal year, ended March 31, according to DGCA data.
Between 2015-2017, 132 pilots in India failed to breathalyzer test during the mandatory pre-flight examination, the Minister of Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu told parliament in August.
Of these, 112 pilots were first-time offenders and their pilot license was suspended for three months. Fifteen pilots were repeated, Prabhu said.
The license of one pilot, who failed the test for the third time, was canceled while four expatriate pilots lost their foreign license for failing the test.
In 2017, Kathpalia was suspended for testing by Bengaluru and New Delhi in January 2017, according to Indiakanoon.
In August last year, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, a trade union representing pilots of the state-owned carrier, filed a brief case against Kathmandu seeking action against him over the shortage of breathalyzer tests and other behavior.
Kathpalia was appointed operations director in June 2017. According to the description at the time, he is responsible for flight operations, ground operations, and flight safety and training operations.
It is unclear if those remain the job specifications. It is also unclear if he will retain his position as an airline director and stay on Air India's board.
Additional reporting by Promit Mukherjee in Mumbai; Edited by Martin Howell and Darren Schuettler
