Suspension of operations at India's largest flying school throws into doubt whether pilot training apparatus can now cater to demand for pilots from airlines as fleets expand.
The sudden death last week of an IndiGo pilot heightened those worries although India's biggest airline says he had a 27-hour break before duty and was in good health.
Action was initiated against the pilots after a complaint from the cabin crew regarding an unauthorised female passenger entering the cockpit of a Delhi-Leh flight last week.
After thousands of pilots were laid off or decided to retire in the face of last year's Covid induced economic crisis, airlines are aggressively trying to rehire staff.
Flying Training Organisations are being set up across Karnataka, Maharashtra, MP and Assam to prevent aspiring pilots from having to receive training abroad.
Statistically, that sounds sensible. But aviation safety isn’t about averages. It needs to be built around the edge cases, where pilots need to work together to solve a problem.
National carrier Air India lost five pilots, Vistara two. IndiGo was the worst hit with seven deaths. Airline employees blame management for delayed vaccination.
Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association cites climbing Covid cases in India, says breathalyser tests could increase risk for airline crews, notes they should be treated as frontline workers.
The Italian term sprezzatura—a studied nonchalance that conceals intention—best captures the spirit of Trump’s foreign policy so far. The pattern is unpredictability, transactionalism, and disruption as diplomacy.
With 20.2 percent of its total loans in default by the end of last year, Bangladesh had the weakest banking system in Asia. Despite reforms, it will take time to recover.
This world is being restructured and redrawn by one man, and what’s his power? It’s not his formidable military. It’s trade. With China, it turned on him.
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