On January 25th, a domestic flight from Srinagar to New Delhi was delayed by an hour due to a tiff between the pilot and aircraft maintenance engineer (AME) over fuel. The aircraft management is looking into the incident following a complaint by the pilot.

Flight delayed

Air India flight AI 826 is a scheduled flight between Srinagar in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi. The short flight lasts less than an hour and a half and is operated by an Airbus A321. On Tuesday afternoon, as the flight was getting ready for its scheduled departure time of 12:25 pm, a fight broke out between the pilot and the flight engineer over fuel imbalance issues.

According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the AME allegedly forced the pilot to operate the aircraft with a fuel imbalance. As reported, the pilot was not satisfied with an imbalance of around 1400kg of fuel and asked the AME to fix the issue. Appropriately filled fuel tanks in both wings are essential to maintain the balance of the aircraft for a smooth and safe flight.

It has been reported that the AME asked the pilot to accept the aircraft with the fuel imbalance. When the pilot refused, an argument broke out between the two employees resulting in a flight delay.

AI 826 is a scheduled flight between Srinagar and New Delhi. Photo: Radarbox.com

Unusual request

According to an airline official, the AME allegedly asked the pilot to report a snag so he could ground the aircraft. The reason for this request was not available, but the pilot refused to ground the airplane in a high-security airport a day before India’s Republic Day.

Finally, another AME was called in after 35 to 40 minutes who fixed the fuel issue, and the flight departed after a nearly hour-long delay.

HT reviewed the complaint filed by the pilot, which highlighted the behavioral issues of the flight engineer, stating,

“Due to high security airport and that too next day (being) Republic Day (I) fail to understand why they want to ground the aircraft. Please look into it through a security angle and intentionally for grounding.

I request for urgent appropriate restitution against outrageous mortification sufficed by the undersigned... This will address the prevalent issues of onerous and worrisome duty of some and insincerity of others keeping in view the high headed behaviour.”

Air India Airbus A319
The bigger 787 offers relatively better seats and experience than smaller single-aisle airplanes. Photo: Getty Images

Past incidents

There have been numerous incidents of flight delays of Indian carriers, particularly Air India, due to employee arguments while on duty. In 2019, Air India had to ground a pilot and flight purser of a Bengaluru-Kolkata flight for unprofessional behavior. The pilot had asked the flight steward to rinse his lunch box, which he refused to do, resulting in the two fighting in full view of the passengers.

In 2015, two pilots in another Air India flight from Jaipur to New Delhi came to blows in the cockpit while discussing the pre-flight checklist. The first officer reportedly beat up the captain, who still decided to go ahead with the flight to avoid disruption in operations.

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