Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has the dubious distinction of having the maximum cases of pilots found under the influence of alcohol before take-off.
A number of airlines including Naresh Goyal’s Jet were cited where pilots were reported to be under the influence of alcohol in the past one year, the government informed the Rajya Sabha.
Incidentally, Mallya had named his airline after the most popular beer brand in his brewery business.
“Eight pilots of Kingfisher Airlines, six each of Indigo and SpiceJet and three each of Jetlite, Jet Airways and Paramount were detected alco-positive during pre-flight medical examination,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in a written reply.
He was responding to a query on incidents of drunk pilots of private airlines during the last one year.
“Any pilot found to be alco-positive is immediately grounded for a period of up to six weeks,” Patel said.