A pilot of a London-Delhi Air India flight allegedly refused to fly the plane after making an emergency landing in Jaipur because of bad weather conditions on Sunday. Around 350 passengers were stranded at the Jaipur airport for about three hours due to the pilot’s refusal to fly the plane.
The passengers had to ultimately seek other arrangements to reach Delhi from Jaipur.
According to an India Today report, Air India flight A-112, originally scheduled to reach Delhi at 4:00 am on Sunday, was diverted to Jaipur due to bad weather conditions at the Delhi airport.
Around two hours after making the emergency landing, the London-bound flight received clearance to resume its journey to Delhi from the Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC). The pilot, however, allegedly refused to fly the plane and disembarked citing duty time limitations and duty hours.
Consequently, about 350 passengers, who were stranded at the airport, were asked to look for alternative arrangements to reach Delhi. While some took the road others flew on the same flight to Delhi after a replacement crew was arranged.
An Air India statement, however, said, “It is misleading to say pilots of AI112 had left the aircraft citing their duty time is over, leading to inconvenience caused to passengers. The fact of the matter is the London-Delhi AI112 flight was diverted to land at Jaipur at 4am today due to inclement weather and poor visibility in Delhi.”
“While the aircraft was waiting for Delhi weather to improve and take off, the cockpit crew came under FDTL, that is Flight Duty Time Limitations. Pilots cannot operate a flight once they come under the FDTL, as laid down by regulatory authorities. Air India accords top priority to safety of its passengers and crew and strictly adhering to the operations regulations, immediately arranged a fresh set of crew to operate the flight. Also, passengers were served refreshments after mandatory immigration clearance at Jaipur airport and were flown into Delhi at 2pm,” it added.
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