Licence suspended, Air India captain still given non-flying duties

National carrier Air India, which grounded its director of operations Amitabh Singh last month for his failure to report a low-fuel incident at Sydney, has allowed

National carrier Air India, which grounded its director of operations Amitabh Singh last month for his failure to report a low-fuel incident at Sydney, has allowed him to continue with duties other than flying.

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Singh, besides handling charge of operations, is also executive director (ED), training. As per norms, these positions can be held only by those having a valid flying licence. Singh was captaining a New Delhi-Sydney flight on September 7 when he failed to file the mandatory report on the low-fuel situation to the DGCA.

“Though Air India has not allowed him to operate an aircraft following the suspension of his flying licence for a month by the DGCA over the incident, he continues to discharge the duties of ED training,” said an official.

Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar was unavailable for comment. Though Singh had reported the incident to Air India, he did not report it to the DGCA within the mandatory 24 hours. The aviation regulator makes it mandatory for a pilot to report certain incidents to them, including low-fuel situation during a flight. As the DGCA has suspended Singh’s flying licence, senior officials privy to the incident said the senior pilot should not have been allowed to continue with other duties as well.

Singh said, “During licence suspension period, one is not supposed to fly. However, one can perform other ground duties and hence I have been doing so. I will resume my flying from Thursday obeying the DGCA order.”

This incident was noted by both the Indian and Australian aviation regulators. “The captain was operating AI 302 when he violated the norm. Though Singh filed a voluntary report about the incident with the airline, he did not file it online with the DGCA within the stipulated 24 hours. The Australian aviation authorities had asked the DGCA to investigate the reason for the pilot to not declare the fuel emergency,” said a Delhi-based DGCA official.

He added, “Australian aviation authorities reported that the flight was advised to delay its landing for 10 minutes. It was then that the pilot-in-command informed the air traffic control that he only had six minutes of fuel left.”