SC rejects pilots' plea, says stick to 1992 flying hours rules
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a decision of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to keep in abeyance a 2007 decision regarding reducing maximum flying time of pilots in the country and rejected claims that it would compromise with aircraft safety.
A bench of justices P. Sathasivam and B. S. Chauhan rejected the plea of the pilots' association that the decision to keep the 2007 decision in abeyance and reverting back to the 1992 rules would mean longer duty hours, leading to fatigued crew and danger to aircrafts safety.
The bench in a judgement, however, asked the DGCA to expedite the process for formulating a new set of rules to rationalise the flying hours for pilots.
Writing the judgement, Justice Chauhan chided the pilots for 'blowing hot and cold' over the flying timings and pointed out that some of the pilots had in fact strongly supported the 1992 rules in the Bombay High Court for being 'scientific' and in tune with 'international standards'.
It said the pilots had subsequently retracted from the stand and assailed the new rules of 2007 which was kept in abeyance by the DGCA following representations from the private airlines managements that it would entail an additional Rs 300 crore on the industry towards recruitment of 25 -30 per cent additional pilots.
Under the 2007 rules, the DGCA has included non-flying hours within an overall annual duty cap of 1,600 hours per pilot, within which the number of flying hours has been capped at 1,000 hours a year.
The DGCA has also increased the mandatory rest period for a pilot per day from eight to ten hours.
Accordingly, the time pilots lose owing to delays, airport congestion or diversions, will all be counted within the duty cap.
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