MUMBAI: The revised rules on
airline pilots’ duty and rest time
that the
Indian civil aviation regulator
had formulated to help manage fatigue better has been kept in abeyance. Airlines have been given indefinite time to put a scheme in place that would comply with the provisions of the said revised rest rules.
Until such a scheme is not approved by the regulator, airlines can continue to roster their pilots for duty and work period based on old regulations formed in 2019, said a revised document issued on Tuesday.
On Jan 8, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) published a revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms which included a 12-hour increase in pilots’ weekly rest period, extension of night duty period, limiting the number of night landings to only two as against six earlier and mandating airlines to file quarterly fatigue reports. Airlines were given time till June 1 to comply with the revised
FDTL regulations
for rostering their pilots.
In Aug last year, a 40-year-old IndiGo pilot suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away in the security hold area of Nagpur airport minutes before he was to board the aircraft to operate a flight to Pune. The death brought to fore a host of
fatigue-related issues
plaguing airline pilots and had the regulator undertake a review of the existent FDTL norms.