ICPA blames international flight delay on senior AI officer

Pilots' body ICPA today blamed a senior officer of Air India's southern region for delaying an international flight by almost two hours after a co-pilot refused to fly with a commander on a union directive.

With Air India launching an enquiry into the incident that occurred on Saturday, the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) shot off a letter to the airline's Southern India General Manager (Operations) blaming him for not utilising the services of pilots "available at the airport" to operate the flight on time.

AI-937 Calicut-Dubai flight, carrying 169 passengers, was delayed after co-pilot Adarsh Kumar refused to fly with Captain Sandeep Marwah following an ICPA directive not to fly with him. Marwah was among two OSDs of former CMD Arvind Jadhav who were removed from their positions days after Rohit Nandan took over as Air India chief in August.

Maintaining that another commander, Captain Sajee Khan, was present at the airport who could have operated the flight, the letter said even though top ICPA office-bearers had requested the general manager to use Khan's services for the purpose, "you took an adamant decision to delay the flight" to let Marwah operate the flight to earn his miles.

"It is this kind of decision-making that has allowed this company to become the laughing stock of the world," it said. The ICPA also claimed that Marwah had "shouted at First Officer Kumar and threatened him in flight despatch" and demanded disciplinary action against the commander.

The union assured Kumar of its "complete support" saying he "cannot be held responsible for following a directive issued by the Central Executive Committee of ICPA" and warning that "any attempt to make him a scapegoat for the failure of the management will be viewed seriously by the ICPA".