PILOT WHO HIT ENGINEER WAS PULLED UP EARLIER

Pilot who hit engineer was pulled up earlier

Ayyappan V

Chennai:





Experts Call For Psychometric Tests To Ensure Safe Flying

Pilot Maniklal Sanghi, who was grounded after he hit an aircraft maintenance engineer in the cockpit of a flight at Chennai airport on Saturday , has a history of courting trouble.

Sources told TOI that an investigation was pending against him for refusing to fly a Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram flight last year.The airline, which incurred loss, planned to fine him, but he was allowed to fly.

The last time a similar incident happened on an Air India flight was in 2009 when a co-pilot and a cabin crew member came to blows in front of passengers on a Dubai-New Delhi flight. The flight attendant said the co-pilot tried to molest her.

Aviation experts and senior pilots say such instances do not just amount to embarrassment for airlines and passengers, they also make flying unsafe. They vote for a stringent periodic psychological assessment of pilots. “This will act as a deterrent. Most of the time, erring pilots use influence and continue to fly,“ said a pilot.

“Indiscipline cannot be allowed to grow. It will simmer and explode. A pilot will not be in the best frame of mind to fly after an argument or a fight. It is good that Air India replaced the pilot this time, but often managements and the aviation regulator do not take strong action,“ said air safety expert Mohan Ranganathan. He said such incidents also affected the safety rating of civil aviation in the country . Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded India's aviation safety ranking in February 2014.Ranganathan blames it on the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA). “There have been many instances of violence by crew, but the regulator has not taken action against them. They are back at work after a brief period. And we have no proper system to assess the psychological state of pilots unlike those abroad, where medical checks include psychometric tests,“ he said.

In India, psychometric tests are done on pilots only at the time of recruitment. “Periodic medical checks are supposed to pick up unusual behaviour. There is no checklist to assess psychological issues. Doctors often run tests based on inputs from the airline about a particular pilot. Otherwise it depends on the personal assessment of the doctor. If a pilot is grumpy , he may prescribe additional checks,“ said a senior pilot with a private airline.

He said airlines should counsel pilots who display short temper or unstable behaviour. “Workplace ethics need to be followed. A pilot has a right to refuse to fly a plane after it is certified by an aircraft maintenance engineer. It should be handled as per procedure. There should be no space for arguments or personal attacks.All airlines have a system to report errors and violations,“ he said.