AI FLIGHT TO MOSCOW RETURNS AFTER PILOT FOUND COVID POSITIVE
An Air India flight from Delhi to Moscow was asked to return midway on Saturday after its ground team realised that one of the pilots onboard the plane tested positive for Covid-19. The Airbus A320 plane departed around 7.15 am for Moscow to bring back a group of stranded Indians under the Vande Bharat evacuation mission and it was back in Delhi by 12.30 pm following orders from the authorities, officials in the airline said. The plane that had only crew members was flying over the airspace of Uzbekistan when it was told to return.
In a lapse of protocols, state-owned airline
Air India on Saturday was forced to call back an aircraft midway after it was found that one of the pilots operating the plane had tested positive for Covid-19 during his pre-flight medical test.
Despite having tested positive, the pilot was rostered for the flight and operated the aircraft for almost three hours, when an official from the airline’s rostering team double checking the pilots’ medical records found he was positive.
The Airbus A320 aircraft departed around 7.15 am for Moscow from Delhi to bring back a group of stranded Indians under the Vande Bharat evacuation mission and it was back by 12.30 pm following orders from the authorities, officials said.
The plane that had only crew members was flying over the airspace of Uzbekistan when it was told to return. A spokesperson for the airline confirmed the incident and said all four pilots and 10 cabin crew members had been asked to quarantine themselves for 14 days. The airline has also announced a probe on the incident. Simultaneously, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also ordered a probe. “Prima facie it appears to be a lapse. We will investigate,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar said. Captain RS Sandhu, Air India’s executive director of operations, refused to comment.
The oversight raises questions on the operational preparedness of the airline, which has been at the forefront of the evacuation missions for Indians stranded abroad. Executives of Air India blamed the high number of Vande Bharat flights the airline was forced to operate without much time for preparedness for the lapse.
“Flights for Vande Bharat Mission were increased suddenly and new destinations were added. The airline had never operated flights to some destinations. All these had to be organised basically in 48 hours. This increases strain on the system and chances of such goof ups,” said an Air India executive. Additionally, domestic operations started on May 25 and Air India has been operating around 30 flights daily.
According to the standard operating procedures for the Vande Bharat mission, crew members have to undergo five days of quarantine after operating a flight.
The airline had operated 242 flights till May 26. For the second phase, while the original number of flights planned was 142, it was later increased to 173. However, a senior official of the civil aviation ministry said schedules of the Vande Bharat mission were approved after getting the go-ahead from the Air India management.
“We always have and will continue to consult the management of Air India before planning such flights. The number of flights is far lesser than the number of international flights that the airline operates in normal times,” the official said.