Mumbai, Oct 28 (PTI) Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Tuesday urged aviation safety regulator DGCA to “immediately” withdraw or rescind any communication, order, or instruction granting extension or relaxation to airlines in the implementation of the new flight duty and rest period for the cockpit crew.
The pilots’ body, which claims representation of over 5,000 pilots in the country, also said that it may take legal recourse if the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) fails to do so.
Airlines have agreed to implement the new DGCA-mandated flight duty and rest norms for pilots, following the Delhi High Court’s direction to the DGCA to ensure their implementation.
These norms, which are being implemented in two phases with the first phase already effective from July this year, entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extension of night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two as against six earlier.
The second phase of these guidelines, which includes two night landings, is to be implemented from next month.
These regulations have been instrumental in managing fatigue-related aviation safety risks for more than a decade now, the Government had said at the time of announcing the new norms.
Domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Air India, opposed these norms but fell in line after the Court’s directives.
“The Federation of Indian Pilots hereby calls upon the DGCA to immediately withdraw or rescind any communication, order, or instruction granting extension or relaxation to airlines in implementation of CAR 2024 (FDTL Regulations),” the Federation said in a letter to the Director General, DGCA.
“Failure to comply with the above within the stipulated time will compel FIP to initiate appropriate proceedings before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi for willful disobedience and contempt of court against the DGCA and the responsible officers. It is requested that the Hon’ble Court order may please be adhered to,” the FIP said.
This comes following reports of the DGCA reportedly granting more time to the airlines to implement some key elements in the phase two rollout.
Besides, the DGCA has also extended flight duty limit by one hour for two-pilot Boeing 787 aircraft operations, which is also being criticised by the pilots’ community, particularly in the wake of the recent fatal crash of Air India Boeing 787 with pilot fatigue, electrical failure, being cited among others, as probable reasons for the accident.
(Disclaimer: This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
