Delhi Police detain 10 Jet Airways pilots for abusing DGCA on social media

The pilots were protesting against a proposed regulation on crew notice period of one year

Ten Jet Airways pilots who were taken off duty for wrongly addressing a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official have been detained by Delhi police for making obscene remarks.

The pilots were detained on a complaint from the DGCA on Tuesday afternoon and the incident could snowball into an agitation.

“DGCA has filed a complaint (against pilots) for making remarks against our officials on social media. It is for the police to take any action,” Director General of Civil Aviation B S Bhullar said in a text message response.

A spokesperson for Delhi police said they were examining the matter and no arrests had been made yet.

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On Monday, Jet Airways de-rostered ten of its pilots who had wrongly addressed Joint Director General Lalit Gupta as a Joint Director in their emails protesting a proposed regulation on crew notice period.

In response to the emails, Gupta directed the airline to check the mental alertness of pilots since they could not even quote his designation properly. The pilots were asked to submit apology letters and also called for a meeting to the regulator's office today.

The detention took place during their meeting. The pilots were accompanied by Sudir Gaur, senior vice-president (operations). It is not known what transpired in the meeting.

“DGCA had called pilots for the meeting. We do not have an issue with them meeting the DGCA but now the matter has taken a different turn. We will continue to support our colleagues and have contacted our lawyers for help,” said Captain Sam Varghese, committee member of National Aviators Guild.