Pilot fired for refusal to fly

2004-01-08 12:12

New Delhi - A pilot of government-owned Air-India was fired for refusing to fly and leaving 300 passengers, mainly foreign tourists, stranded for 40 hours, it was reported on Thursday.

A Kaushal was flying the Frankfurt-New Delhi route on December 23. The plane was diverted from New Delhi to the western city of Ahmedabad because of dense fog.

Kaushal and his co-pilot M Gulabani refused to fly any further from Ahmedabad, saying they had worked 40 minutes more than their official duty time, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

Air-India had directed the pilots to fly to the western city of Mumbai as an alternative and load sufficient surplus fuel to hold over in New Delhi in case of continuing bad weather. The pilots refused.

The passengers had to wait in Ahmedabad until a fresh crew was flown in from Bombay. The plane then took off for Bombay and finally reached New Delhi after a delay of 40 hours.

'Kidnapped'

Some of the passengers' trauma was recorded on paper napkins, towels and placards at Bombay airport that said: "Kidnapped by Air-India", "Never again to India", "We don't want to come back".

The airline's public relations director Jitendra Bhargava said firing the pilot "was a clear message to all Air-India employees that when it comes to customer inconvenience arising out of human lapse, the company will take a tough stand".

India's Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy has instructed the airline to send a letter of apology and a gift to all the passengers. - Sapa-DPA

- SAPA