First from left: Mayank Sharma was left behind First from left: Mayank Sharma was left behind

The national carrier is yet again in the news for all the wrong reasons. An Air India crew member was left stranded at Jeddah after the pilot took off without him after a heated argument over rest period.

Incidents of heated arguments between the pilots and crew have come to light in the past as well. There have been over 100 flight delays since the beginning of 2015, owing to crew or pilot unavailability but the latest incident is a shocker.

Sources tell Headlines Today that the pilot of Jeddah Hyderabad Bombay flight left behind a crew member after heated argument over DGCA mandated rest. The crew is now stranded at The Trident Hotel in Jeddah and has been asked by management to pay his own bill.

The national carrier operated AI 963 on the April 29 was on the Calicut Jeddah route. This flight was to return on the Jeddah-Hyderabad-Bombay route on April 30. Sources say when flight AI 963 reached Jeddah, the crew identified as Mayank Sharma informed the captain of the flight Capt Saran that he would be taking the DGCA mandated rest period of 22 hours before being ready for AI 966.

This, sources say, led to a heated argument between the two in the transport vehicle itself. Once the crew and pilot reached the hotel lobby this crew member again informed the pilot that he would follow the DGCA rules. The pilot allegedly told Mayank that he would take off without him.

The crew member Mayank Sharma had recently been part of the AI crew team deployed for the evacuation work in Yemen.

All India Cabin Crew Association says that the pilot has acted in the most irresponsible way by not only leaving a crew behind but also declaring a door inoperative since leaving a crew behind meant the flight had shortage of crew.

AI operated a Boeing 747 400 aircraft for the return journey. This aircraft has 12 doors. AI operating with least number of crews had 12 at its disposal. Leaving Mayank meant the pilot flew off with just 11 and left 1 door inoperative. This was a clear violation of the DGCA rules.

DGCA office told Headlines Today that they were surprised at this news and would be soon finding out the details of the same.

AICCA alleges that the flight was delayed by 4 hours.

The rule book:

The DGCA CAR governing cabin crew mandates the following:

Clause 3.4 defining clear rest as a defined uninterrupted period of time in which a crew member will be free from all duties including standbys.

Clause 8.2 states that before undertaking an international flight a crew member is to be given a clear rest of no less than 22 hours. This rest is to be given at home base or any other station from where the international flight shall originate.

Insiders say that the stress levels with the pilots and crew are on a all time high. With pressure from the management these issues are all the more compounded. Last week DGCA had informed media that a committee set to look for the need to conduct psychometric tests would soon be giving its report. Based on this report DGCA will take a final decision whether or not to go ahead with compulsory psychometric tests.

Air India has completely denied the incident

@pankajaajtak