The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday suspended six pilots from three airlines — two each from IndiGo, SpiceJet and Air India — a week after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cried foul over a delayed landing of the IndiGo flight she was travelling in at the Kolkata airport.
Banerjee, along with TMC Vice-President Mukul Roy, was flying back to Kolkata in an IndiGo flight after attending a rally in Patna against demonetisation. Her flight was hovering in the skies for half an hour even after the aircraft was allegedly low on fuel. TMC leaders also caused a huge uproar in the Parliament over the matter saying that the chief minister's life had been threatened, while the Centre insisted that there was no danger.
"The DGCA has de-rostered (meaning grounded) the pilots and sought their corrective training," an AI spokesperson told the media, adding that "there was no security threat. It was due to congestion. What is troubling though is that the ATC maintains that they didn't receive any word regarding the flight being low on fuel. We will need to investigate the issue thoroughly."
Roy had said that the IndiGo flight landed at 8:45 p.m. at the Kolkata airport. "Upon landing, the pilot said that the ATC had been informed about the flight being low on fuel at 8:13pm. The flight with the CM on board was in the air, while the flight was critically low on fuel," he said.
Roy added that the flight took off an hour late. He added that the pilot announced the flight was eigth in queue for landing and, therefore, it would hover in the skies due to congestion at the Kolkata airport.
The airlines are clearly not happy with the decision meted out by the DGCA who had said that it would investigate how the three flights were low on fuel. IndiGo issued a clarification saying that "fuel on arrival was more than minimum diversion fuel" and that the ATC controller misunderstood what the pilot said, which led him to call for fire engines and ambulances at the Kolkata airport.
"IndiGo Captain had followed all SOPs as laid by the regulator and at no stage the Captain declared a fuel priority or an emergency," a statement issued by the airline said, adding that "there had been no violation or breach of any regulatory requirement" in Banerjee's flight even though the concerned pilots have been kept off duty. The statement further added that the matter was being investigated thoroughly.
"The flight was kept on hold for landing due to air traffic congestion at Kolkata. The pilot operating 6E-342 had advised the ATC that he has 8 minutes of extra holding fuel over Kolkata (Destination) before commencing diversion to the planned alternate. However, this information was misunderstood by the Air Traffic Controller who assumed that the aircraft had only 8 minutes of total fuel left. The misinterpretation of the information by ATC controller led ATC to instruct fire engines and ambulances to be stationed at Kolkata airport," IndiGo had said in a statement issued on December 1.
Air India also issued a statement in response to the DGCA order: "Pilot derostered for communication gap resulting from confusing phraseology. No take from AI. We will abide by what DGCA has advised."
According to sources quoted by the Times of India, this move is being seen as a warning to all airline operators to not be callous with fuel, especially during the winter season since flights get diverted to the different locations frequently due to low visibility.
