MUMBAI: A pilot of a private charter company who had skipped the mandatory breathalyzer (BA) tests to check blood alcohol levels when flying the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on several occasions in 2016, has been suspended for three months now for a similar violation.
This time though it didn’t involve a VVIP passenger.
On February 17, the pilot operated an aircraft at Delhi airport without undergoing the BA test or submitting the mandatory undertaking that he hadn’t consumed alcohol in the past 12 hours—the latter was a temporary option put in place due to Covid. For the violation, the DGCA suspended his licence for a month, but after complaints from the industry, increased the suspension to three months.
Incidentally, the pilot has been suspended again for another three months in another case by the DGCA flight safety directorate, said aviation industry sources.
“Had an airline pilot violated the breathalyzer norms a second time, his/her licence would have been suspended for a period of three years, keeping with the norms laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA),” said a source.
So why wasn’t his licence suspended for three years?
The matter goes back to 2016. The pilot, a DGCA examiner on Cessna Citation aircraft, works for A R Airways, an aircraft charter company based out of Delhi. Back then, the charter company had signed an agreement with the Maharashtra state government under which their crew operated VVIP flights.
During a DGCA surveillance carried out in March 2016, it was found that he and another pilot with the civil aviation department (CAD) of the Maharashtra government were not undergoing the mandatory BA tests, said a highly placed DGCA official. Among the flights were those carrying the then chief minister.
“Since the infrastructure to carry out BA tests was not provided by CAD, the DGCA was to take enforcement action against CAD too. But the CAD pleaded, assured that necessary infrastructure to ensure the compliance of the requirements has been put in place and also demonstrated their commitment,” the official said.
“Based on that, the then director general of civil aviation didn’t take action against both pilots,” said the official. The charter company’s pilot’s latest BA violation was then seen as the first offence and a three-month suspension was handed out, he added.
A R Airways declined to comment.
Commenting on the 2016 case, Valsa Nair Singh, principal secretary, civil aviation, state government, said: “I’m not aware of any communication from this office to the DGCA, it could have been at the level of CAD. Back then when we hired pilots, we checked the DGCA clearances.” She added that the state has taken a lot of safety measures in the past few years.
“The state ensures that all mandatory tests are followed as the aircraft fly VVIPs,” she said.
