Senior Air India pilot grounded after failing second breathalyzer test

132

Pilots failed breath tests in last 3 years 15

Failed the tests twice, suspended for 3 years

new delhi — India’s air safety watchdog on Monday suspended the licence of a senior Air India pilot, who is also the carrier’s director of operations, for three years, a day after he failed two breathalyzer tests before a flight to London from New Delhi.

This is the second time Arvind Kathpalia has been in trouble over alcohol tests. He was suspended for three months in 2017 for allegedly refusing to take breathalyzer tests. “The privileges of his licence have been suspended for a period of three years from 11.11.2018 as per the provisions of applicable regulations,” a spokesman at the

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement.

Kathpalia, who sits on the airline’s board, said the DGCA directive “is a rule and so it is meant to be followed”. “At present, I don’t

see how” to contest it, he added.

On Sunday, he had said that he would contest the results of the tests and claimed he was the victim of internal feuding within the lossmaking state-owned airline.

An Air India spokesman could not be reached for comment.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets with about 20 per cent growth in the number of passengers taking do-

mestic and international flights over the past few years.

More than one million flights departed from the country last fiscal year, ended March 31, according to DGCA data. Between 2015-2017, 132 pilots in India failed a breathalyzer test during the mandatory pre-flight examination, the Minister of Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu told parliament in August.

Of these, 112 pilots were first time offenders and their pilot licence was suspended for three months. Fifteen pilots were repeat offenders and had their license suspended for three years, Prabhu said. The licence of one pilot, who failed the test for the third time, was cancelled while four expatriate pilots lost their foreign licence for failing the test.

In 2017, Kathpalia was suspended for three months when he had allegedly refused to take a breathalyzer test before a flight to Bengaluru from New Delhi, the DGCA said. —