NEW DELHI: Air India has been regularly violating air safety standards with regard to crew training and duty time of pilots, a Parliamentary Consultative Committee member of the Ministry of Civil Aviation has alleged.

Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha member, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Bombay High Court on Friday, seeking action against top officials of Air India for wastage of public money and violation of air crew standards.

Mr. Raut said that he had raised these issues with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the regulatory body, but it had not responded to him.

Claiming to have done a series of studies regarding the operations of Air India and having access to various documents, Mr. Raut said the approval of the DGCA was mandatory under "Civil Aviation Requirements" (CAR) for pilots to work as instructors, examiners and check pilots. It mandates that to undergo the training to becoming an instructor; the pilot should have a minimum of 1000 hours of command experience.

He said that serious infirmities were noted in Air India recommending certain pilots to the DGCA for approval for commencement of training as instructors.

The CAR empowers the DGCA to relax the requirement to 500 hours provided the pilot has instructional experience of not less than 200 hours. "It means, a pilot who has 200 hours or more of instructional experience coupled with command experience of 500 hours on a specific aircraft may avail relaxation under clause 3.5 in the basic eligibility of 1000 hours of command experience," he submitted in the PIL.

The petitioner said that sometime in 2004, Air India dry leased Boeing 777 aircraft and requested for relaxation of the norm from 500 hours to 200 hours for training instructors but did not get any reply from the DGCA.

In October last year, a pilot, Captain Amitabh Singh, was unilaterally sent for training as instructor on Boeing 777 aircraft. On inquiry, it was found that he had only 350 hours of command experience on Boeing 777 against the mandatory minimum requirement of 500 hours.

Mr. Raut wrote to the DGCA on October 30, 2005, protesting against the wastage of public money by Air India by resorting to training of pilots in violation of DGCA rules. The attempt, he alleged, amounted to illegal training and compromising the quality of aircrew training standards.

For the first time, in January 25 this year, DGCA sought clarification from Air India on training aspects of pilots.

However, on February 3, 2006, the Director (Operations) of Air India took a stand that he was not required to take any permission from the DGCA, as CAR was allegedly silent on the issue.

The DGCA issued a letter to Air India, rejecting its attempt to train unqualified pilots.

The petitioner submitted that despite DGCA's objection, Air India was trying to "use political pressure" on the regulator through its sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry.

"If Air India were able to snatch approval through political influence, the same will have a serious setback to public safety and safety of the aircraft and the pilots as well," Mr. Raut said.

In January, a B-747-400 commander was allegedly allowed to operate a Frankfurt-Chicago flight after having travelled on the same aircraft on the Mumbai-Frankfurt sector as a supernumerary or staff in uniform thereby compromising air safety.

This was again brought to the notice of the DGCA by Mr. Raut. The air safety regulation mandates an upper limit of nine-and-a-half hours of flight time and flight duty time for two pilot operations. Further, the regulator through its letter in February 2002 had made it clear that the supernumerary or passenger hours of pilots shall be counted towards their flight time.

Mr. Raut drew the DGCA's attention to AI's Director (Operations) "perpetually flouting the safety regulations of the DGCA with arrogant impunity."

He wanted the regulator to intervene and take immediate action. The DGCA, in its January 25 letter to Air India, clarified that any attempt to circumvent the CAR particularly "flying experience shall not be accepted."

Officials at Air India headquarters in Mumbai were not available for comment.

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