Days after at least 18 people lost their lives in the deadly Kerala plane tragedy, two pilot unions of Air India on August 11 demanded that the DGCA chief Arun Kumar must be immediately sacked and replaced with someone who has ‘substantial knowledge of the aviation sector and operational experience’.
The Indian Commercial Pilots’ Union (ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) cited the current DGCA Chief’s comments in a news debate where he said that the plane’s ‘landing was not smooth’. The unions claimed that Kumar has an ‘amateurish view’ of the Kozhikode plane crash.
Kumar also said that the ‘two fellows are dead…and the landing it seems was not appropriate’.
Pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, 58, and co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar, 32, were flying the Air India Express flight with 190 onboard that skidded off the runway and crashed at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala on August 7.
The two pilots were not a part of either of the two unions.
The unions stated, ‘Whether a landing technique is appropriate or a contributory factor to a mishap can only be ascertained after a thorough, evidence backed investigation and not by speculative, casual remarks.’
‘It is an established scientific fact that so-called ‘smooth’ touchdowns may be counterproductive in certain adverse weather conditions and may pose a significant risk to safety,’ it stated.
The unions requested Minister Of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri that Arun Kumar IAS is immediately replaced with a ‘suitable candidate with substantial aviation knowledge and operational experience, to serve the country as the Director General of Civil Aviation’.
Also Read: ‘Pilots Were Told About Weather, Tailwinds’: Aviation Watchdog Chief On Kerala Plane Tragedy
