Five Air India pilots, 2 engineers test +ve
ACCORDING TO GOVT
GUIDELINES, ALL THE OPERATING CREW HAVE TO UNDERGO A SWAB TEST BEFORE AND AFTER OPERATING A FLIGHT. IT IS ONLY IF THEIR SECOND TEST IS NEGATIVE THAT THEY ARE ROSTERED
MUMBAI: Five Air India pilots in Mumbai and two employees from its engineering wing, Air India Engineering Service Ltd. (AIESL), have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), after undergoing a test on May 8 when the ministry of civil aviation made it mandatory for all airline crew and staff to get themselves checked for the virus before operating repatriation flights.
According to the ministry’s guidelines, all the operating crew have to undergo a swab test before and after operating a flight. Crew members are tested again after few days and it is only if their second test report is negative that they are rostered for the next flight.
Air India refused to comment. People in the know of the development in the airline said the test reports of the pilots were received on Saturday.
An Air India official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “All crew who have earlier operated international flights after lockdown have been asked to mandatorily quarantine themselves for 14 days. After the five pilots were tested positive for the virus, they were not allowed to fly. All these pilots are based in Mumbai.”
Another Air India official said, “They had operated international cargo flights earlier but it is not sure whether they got infected due to the travel or in Mumbai.”
People in the airline said that many Air India cabin and cockpit crew members had been kept in quarantine in Delhi and Mumbai because of the flights they had operated recently. They said that all these pilots were asymptomatic and been sent home for self-quarantine.
Senior airline officials in Delhi said that along with the five pilots, two engineers too had tested positive for Covid-19.
These employees were working at the aircraft hangar of a non-schedule operator at the Mumbai airport, PTI reported.
Regarding two staff of AIESL testing positive for coronavirus, the non-scheduled operator had informed the company in a recent e-mail.
As per the e-mail, seen by PTI, the operator said that outsourced MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) personnel attending its aircraft are also tested for coronavirus infection.