Air India Pilots Allegedly Squabble Over Trim Sheet

Thursday, 9th April 2015 at 03:24am

Two pilots of Air India Airbus flight 611 reportedly engaged in a squabble prior to taking off from Jaipur Airport on Sunday. According to reports, the two had some discord involving a trim sheet.

The official spokesperson for the airline admitted that a discord transpired but clarified that it did not progress into anything serious.

The Air India flight 611 was bound for New Delhi that day. The two pilots were preparing for take off when the tension between them occurred. Reportedly, the flight commander directed his co-pilot to take note of vital pre-flight information including the number of air passengers on the flight, weight at take off, fuel consumption rate, among others. These data are logged on trim sheets as part of the documentation procedure prior to a flight.

However, a source said that the co-pilot felt slighted by the gesture and reportedly fought with the commander.

Despite the incident, the commander opted to pursue the scheduled flight bringing passenger and crew of flight AI 611 safely from Jaipur to Delhi.

Standard procedure dictates that the commander should have reported the incident immediately, in this case while in Jaipur. However, to avoid cancellation and further delays on the passengers' itineraries, he decided to go on with the flight and report the incident upon landing in Delhi.

Sources say he flew back to Mumbai after logging an entry with movement control in Delhi.

One of the high-ranking pilots of AI disclosed that the same co-pilot has displayed similar poor behaviour in the past. Allegedly, he once removed a pilot's stars on his epaulet and ended up having row with the latter. Another disclosed that in a separate incident the co-pilot also behaved rudely.

It was suggested that both the airline and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation conduct an inquest on this latest incident and that appropriate measures be undertaken to prevent the occurrence of similar events and improve air safety in general.

By: Pete Lee.