NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has sought all details related to the death of a young Air India Express pilot at Delhi Airport on Wednesday shortly after safely operating a flight from Srinagar. The airline is learnt to have given all the details to the regulator.
Pilot friends of late first officer Armaan (36) have sought a probe into the circumstances leading to his demise.
“We have sought all details from Air India Express. We will be seeing whether the late pilot got the right medical services at Delhi Airport and in what time, among other aspects. Once we get all these details, the future course of action will be decided,” said a senior DGCA official.
“The entire chain of events will be looked into,” said a senior aviation ministry official. A probe is necessary as there are differing accounts on when the 36-year-old first got medical help and whether he could have been saved. While multiple pilots say “despite the critical situation, no ambulance or medical team arrived for over 45 minutes,” Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) says it took about 10 minutes “from information being conveyed (about the pilot taking ill) to the terminal manager and subsequent response from” the health service provider at IGIA.
“Captain Armaan had collapsed just outside the cockpit after operating Air India Express flight IX 1171 from Srinagar to Delhi. He showed signs of acute physical distress, including vomiting and loss of consciousness. In the fall, he sustained a head injury after hitting a service cart,” his friends and multiple pilot colleagues say. Armaan was declared dead at the hospital about 90 minutes later.
AI Express has requested “all concerned to respect privacy at this time and avoid unnecessary speculation while we commit to assisting the relevant authorities in due process.” Armaan, who had joined AI Express in 2023 from SpiceJet, had flown for less than 12 hours in the last seven days, it is learnt.
While not linking Armaan’s tragic death to fatigue, several pilots say they have for a long time been pleading for less strenuous working conditions in India. After a significant delay, slightly less strenuous flight duty time limitations (FDTL) rules — that govern key issues like how much a pilot can fly with what rest periods and limits on night flying — are set to be enforced from this summer.
“Many pilots have lost their lives suddenly in last few years, especially post Covid, and we have been fighting for a more humane FDTL. We just hope nothing else delays implementation of the new rules, something which we have seen in the past. Well rested and not stressed pilots are key to safe flights,” said many senior pilots.
