On Thursday, a probe into a strange act was ordered by Air India wherein a commander purportedly denied for operating an aircraft from Chennai just because a specific female co-pilot was not available. Condemning the incident, Ashwani Lohani, managing director and chairman of Air India, maintained in a statement that these kinds of activities would not be tolerated or condoned.
It was on Wednesday morning at Chennai airport that around 110 passengers who were going to Male via Thiruvananthapuram had to wait for more than 2 hrs when the commander was adamant for operating the flight in the presence of only some specific female pilot.
This is what Lohani stated, “On the issue of the recent incident on (Air India flight) AI 263 from Chennai to Male via Thiruvananthapuram where the pilot refused to fly without a particular co-pilot, the airline has taken a strong view on the matter and has ordered an immediate inquiry into it.”
Air India chairman and MD added, “The airline has suffered enough because of such stray and repeated cases of indiscipline.” “I have directed all such cases be brought to my notice immediately and strict action to be taken,” Lohani further said.
The flight delayed for over 2 hrs due to tantrums of the commander and the flight which was scheduled to take-off at 7am departed at 9:13am. Just to inform you, this commander gave his resignation a week ago and had been on his notice period. The pilot made a request to the company for allowing his favorite woman pilot; however, the company didn’t approve his request after which he gave the warning that he would report for being sick.