The Hindu : 12 chargesheeted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 29, 2003

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12 chargesheeted

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI April 28. Air-India today chargesheeted 12 of the 27 suspended pilots accusing them of refusing to operate and `abandoning' their flights at various destinations.

However, no action was taken against Kennil Khan, president of the Indian Pilots' Guild, the union that directed its members not to operate a flight unless the airline certified that the crew had not flown to any SARS-affected area in the past ten days.

An AI spokesman parried questions about the exclusion of the IPG president but said the action would have resulted in withdrawal of his security passes making even the IPG office out of bounds for him. The management was in the process of ordering a departmental inquiry against the chargesheeted pilots who would then have to reply in 48 hours. A total of 55 pilots were served show-cause notices and at least 30 more pilots could face disciplinary action, he said.

However, the action has had no salutary effect on the agitating pilots and none of them has offered to operate a flight.

The IPG also stuck to its guns and the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, trade union of Indian Airlines pilots, announced its support to the AI pilots.

The IPG general secretary, Vikrant Sansare, told reporters that the union would challenge the suspension in court tomorrow adding that the question of withdrawing the directive to the members did not arise.

The AI spokesman said a conciliatory effort made by the Regional Labour Commissioner in Mumbai could not take off as the IPG leadership kept off the proceedings. The Regional Labour Commissioner was expected to send his report to the Central Labour Commissioner who is empowered to decide whether or not the pilots' action is legal.

AI said that while it was able to operate all West-bound flights with the help of the executive pilots, it had to curtail by about 50 per cent the services to other sectors where A310 aircraft was used. The airline had lost 20 per cent of its passengers due to the agitation.

The AI discontinued the flight to Hong Kong due to poor loads and discontinued flights to Nairobi and Dar-es-Salam because of the non-availability of an adequate number of executive pilots.

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