Air India removes Arvind Kathpalia as operations director

NEW DELHI: Air India on Tuesday removed Captain Arvind Kathpalia as its operations director two days after he failed the pre-flight breath analyser test + .

The national carrier has given additional charge of the position to executive director (training) Captain Amitabh Singh.


The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had on Monday suspended his flying licence + for three years as this was the second time that Captain Kathpalia had failed the alcohol test.

Referring to the DGCA ruling, the order issued by the aviation ministry on Tuesday said: “Taking cognizance of the serious nature of the transgression and failure to course correct even after an earlier suspension of flying licence for three months, the minister of civil aviation has accorded approval for the following: Relieving of Captain Kathpalia from the charge of director (operations) with immediate effect, and Captain Amitabh Singh, ED (Training) to be assigned the additional charge of the post of Director (Operations) with immediate effect till further orders.”

Kathpalia had failed the alcohol test before operating a Delhi-London flight on Sunday.

“The privileges of his licence have been suspended for a period of three years from 11.11.2018 as per the provisions of applicable regulations,” a DGCA official had said.

On January 19 last year, Captain Kathpalia had operated a Delhi-Bangalore flight without undergoing the BA (breath analyzer) test. Even after landing, he did not take a post-flight BA test.






After the second time he failed the BA test, the aviation ministry had said in a tweet: “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.”