Air India suspends licence of pilot who failed alcohol test before take off

The licence of Air India pilot, who was found to have an unacceptably high blood alcohol count shortly before he was scheduled to fly, has been suspended for three years on Monday.

A second-time offender, 56-year-old Arvind Kathpalia was booked in August for a similar offence. He is also the director of Air India’s flight operations.

Airline officials familiar with the matter said the London-bound AI 111, scheduled to depart at 2:45 pm, was delayed after Kathpalia failed the test .

As per the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the level of blood alcohol compatible (BAC) with safe flying is ‘zero’. Kathpalia was declared unfit to fly as he had 007% BAC. The airline got the test results at 1:30 pm, a little over an hour before departure, and had to scramble to get another pilot to fly the Boeing 787 that goes non-stop to London’s Heathrow International airport.

On January 19 last year, Kathpalia commandeered the Delhi-Bengaluru flight AI 174 without going through the mandatory breathalyser test. He did not take the test after landing at Bengaluru either despite being reminded about it, according to the complaint filed by the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association.

An FIR was lodged against Kathpalia on August 24 after the pilots’ union alleged that the episode involved forgery, intimidation of a doctor, and violations of aviation rules.

The civil aviation ministry, however, tweeted, “HMCA @sureshpprabhu has viewed this incident... and already directed earlier that there will be zero tolerance on safety thus now has asked #DGCA to take action as per rules immediately, they are awaiting report from Air India, action will be taken ASAP.”

First Published: Nov 12, 2018 12:34 IST