PIA is violating flight safety rules of CAA, claims Palpa

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Airline Pilots’ Association (Palpa) has claimed that the flag carrier’s management of is violating safety rules in assigning the crew duties that it said put safety of pilots and flights at risk.

The Palpa’s spokesman said the management of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is violating its flight operation manual, flight safety rules of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and safety guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

“This is puting both the aircraft and passengers’ safety at risk, while it (the management) has not paid any heed to our repeated reminders regarding safety violations,” the spokesman said in a statement ater a general body meeting.

He said the PIA management has recently introduced some changes in flight duty time limitation planning, “which carries a very high element of fatigue.”

“The scheduling has failed to keep in mind the effects of fatigue, compounding adverse effect on crew health and therefore safety of flight,” he added. “The majority of our crew are reluctant to accept the flights. However, those who are on contract are forced to carry out these duties under pressure in fear of losing their contracts.”

The Palpa said the association needs to be taken onboard of any policy decision under an agreement that governs its relationship with PIA.

“There are few elements within your team who have their own vested interests and are unnecessarily taking arbitrary actions with regard to crew duties causing unrest within the pilot community, which in turn de-motivates our members and puts flight safety at risk,” the association said in a leter to PIA CEO. The spokesman said the CAA and the International Civil Aviation Organisation need to address the issue.

In an unrelated development, the balloting of appointments for vacancies of lowest scales of one to five in Pakistan Railways (PR) will be done again, according to a decision of federal cabinet.