Repeated cockpit incidents show pilots are not learning: Air India CEO

Airline expects employees to rules, 'keep elevating game': Campbell Wilson

Repeat incidents where Air India's pilots allowed unauthorised persons in the aircraft's cockpit indicate that they are not learning and improving "due to complacency, carelessness or some other factor", its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said on Friday.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday suspended two pilots—a captain for one year and co-pilot for one month—for allowing an unauthorised person in the cockpit during the airline's Chandigarh-Leh flight on June 3.

A similar incident had taken place on the airline's Delhi-Dubai flight on February 27 when its captain had allowed a female friend in the plane's cockpit. The DGCA had in April suspended this captain for three months and warned the co-pilot as he was not assertive to prevent this violation.

"You may have read about the license suspension our regulator handed to two of our colleagues (pilots of June 3 flight) for not adhering to sterile cockpit regulations. The one-year suspension is long but, given that this is the second such incident in a relatively short space of time, it is quite understandable," Wilson told employees in a message reviewed by 'Business Standard'.

The aviation industry operates with a "just culture" mindset that recognises that genuine mistakes happen and that they are opportunities from which to learn and improve, he said.

"But learn and improve we must, and repeats indicate that we are not adequately doing so whether due to complacency, carelessness or some other factor," said Wilson.

The rules and regulations exist for a reason, and the airline expects them to be followed. "The strong action taken by DGCA should serve as a reinforcement, not that one should be needed, that it is incumbent on us all to keep elevating our game," he stated.