The Air India management grounded a woman pilot and another crew member for three months after they failed a pre-flight alcohol test.

"The crew members, who have been taken off from flying for failing to clear the pre-flight medical test were to operate Air India's Rajkot flight from New Delhi on January 25", sources said.

As per DGCA safety regulations, all pilots and cabin crew must go through breath analyser test before and after flights.

Incidentally, airline's head of operations, himself a senior executive pilot, is under scrutiny by a committee for skipping the mandatory test close to a month.

"The woman pilot and cabin crew along with other operating crew were rostered for Air India flight AI-9631 on January 25 for Rajkot from New Delhi. After they reported for duty, as per norms, they were told to undertake breath analyser test. However, the findings were positive," a source said.

"The matter was reported to the DGCA and the two crew members were taken off for flying for three months", the source said.

Aircraft rules forbid crew members from having any alcoholic drink 12 hours before boarding the flight, and it is compulsory for the employee to go through an alcohol test both before and after serving a flight.

Any crew member whose tests is positive or refuses to take a breath analyser test is taken off flying duty for at least four weeks and the airline is ordered to start disciplinary proceedings.

Two Drunken Pilots Suspended by DGCA

BY M. DIVYA SRI