After Latest Crash, Spotlight on Air India’s History of Ignoring Whistleblowers

New Delhi: On June 12, the tragic crash of Air India flight AI 171, headed from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to London’s Gatwick, left the world in shock. More than 250 people died – those who were on the flight and those in the building the plane crashed into.

Since the crash, it appears as though Air India just can’t stay out of the news. Multiple of the airline’s flights have been cancelled or had to return without reaching their destination owing to technical snags and crew-duty delays.

On June 16, for instance, a Delhi-bound Air India flight from Hong Kong returned to its airport of origin, after the pilot in command suspected a technical issue, more specifically a noise in the door of the aircraft. On June 23, an Air India Express flight from Delhi to Srinagar via Jammu returned to Delhi after suspected ‘GPS interference’. Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India.

Air India under DGCA scanner

In his first public statement since the crash AI 171 crash, Tata Sons and Air India chairman N. Chandrasekaran voiced deep sorrow and concern for the loss of lives. “It is an extremely difficult situation where I have no words to express to console any of the families of those who died,” he said.

While Tata Sons and Air India maintain that there was no history of issues with the said aircraft, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) comes out strongly against the very recently privatised Air India. The DGCA has ordered Air India to remove three of its staffers from crucial operational duties and issued a stern warning for “repeated and serious violations” related to pilot duty scheduling and oversight, with the regulator stating it could suspend the airline’s licence in case of future breaches.

Also read: Quality Concerns in Dreamliners That Boeing Sold to Air India Had Given a Manager Nightmares

This move by the DGCA was mandated by what it said were “systemic failures in crew scheduling, compliance monitoring, and internal accountability” — raising serious questions about the airline’s attitude to passenger safety.

The DGCA has also said that “any future violation of crew scheduling norms, licensing, or flight time limitations detected in any post-audit or inspection, will attract strict enforcement action, including but not limited to penalties, license suspension, or withdrawal of operator permissions as applicable”.

Silencing whistleblowers

In 2021, when a former Air India pilot raised faults within the firm he had been working with for almost two decades, he noticed unusual behaviour on the part of the company.

The pilot began writing to his higher ups about crucial issues within the organisation – ranging from a lackadaisical approach towards training protocols to a relaxed adherence to safety norms, even before the company was taken over by Tata Sons in January 2022. He alleged that some pilots were cheating during their training, and that because of an AI training module, the courses for co-pilots to become captains were extremely basic.

In one of his emails, all of which The Wire has access to, the former pilot wrote to Campbell Wilson, chairman, Air India to bring to his “attention to the violations and deviations committed by Air India in the process of selecting trainers who are entrusted with the enormous responsibility of training and checking all the flight crew of Air India”. The email was sent in 2022.

In another email, the former pilot wrote, “there have been a number of instances of “Fume Events” or cabin air contamination in the Airbus fleet. Many cases have not been reported as pilots themselves are not aware of the seriousness of the issue and even when pilots/cabin crew report it, the engineers too brush it away, sometimes even blaming it on the sanitisers used to clean the cabin.” This was also penned in 2022.

Again highlighting safety issues with aircraft, the employee emailed his higher ups about a GPWS warning on the morning flight AI650 from Amritsar to Mumbai on September 8, 2022. “The crew could not configure the aircraft and inspite of a GPWS warning elected to go ahead and land, whereas it is required to execute a Go-Around (sic),” he wrote.

In a letter written in 2023 to Tata Group chairman Chandrasekaran, where the pilot has stated how during his service, he consistently highlighted unsafe flight operations in Air India in several emails to Chandrasekaran as well as Wilson. He also included the letters he had earlier sent his superiors.

“When I was in Air India, I raised a lot of concerns about safety issues, training protocols and even cost cutting. Ultimately it is these issues which come together to cause an accident. In aviation, it is not just one thing that causes the loss of lives, it is when too many factors come together to cause a crash,” the pilot said.

“Few of us pointed out concerns, but they sidelined these very pressing issues,” said the former Air India pilot who had reached out to the Tata CEO. He also added that there were deficiencies and corruption in training of pilots and suppression of serious slight safety violations.

“They didn’t consider that people would actually suffer because of these concerns insiders raised. People who found faults within the system were just fired,” he added.

“If they continue like this, more people will die. My intention is not to serve any motive. I don’t want more accidents to happen, or people to die,” said the former pilot, who was let go after he raised several complaints to flag discrepancies within Air India. His firing reportedly took place one day after he wrote to Chandrasekaran and Wilson, and he never received a response from either of them. While letting him go, the company told the pilot that he had violated the Tata code of conduct.

After the recent crash, two senior Air India flight attendants wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming they were terminated from service by the airline after they refused to change their statement about a technical problem with a Boeing 787 in May 2024. They have demanded a CBI probe into the issue.

They said they were fired after they refused to alter their statements about a technical snag in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner door in May 2024. They alleged the Dreamliner's door had malfunctioned as the  slide raft deployed, though the door was opened in the "manual mode". This incident concerns the Mumbai-London B787 (VT-ANQ) opera flight AI-129, after it docked at Heathrow and the passengers disembarked. “We refused to change our statements despite considerable pressure exerted on us by higher authorities,” the letter said, naming three senior officials.

In March this year, Air India terminated the services of a trainer pilot following a whistleblower complaint regarding lapses during simulator training and grounded 10 of his under trainees.

Answers and anxieties

Since the crash, Air India and Tata Sons seem to be sinking in a quicksand box of questions.

Bookings too have taken a hit, as Air India flights have declined by around 20% on domestic as well as international routes while the average fares have dropped by 8-15% in the aftermath of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash.

The Wire reached out to Air India for their comments on the allegations made by the pilot as well as the administrative culture in question.

The Air India spokesperson responded by saying, "We have no record of any employment termination resulting from an employee reporting operational irregularities. Air India, like all Tata group companies, strictly adheres to the Tata Code of Conduct, which – on the contrary – encourages employees to report potential violations of the Code, policies, laws, or misconduct."

The spokesperson added, “Co-pilots upgrade to Captains as per the eligibility criteria defined in our manuals, which is amongst the most stringent in the Indian aviation industry. The syllabus for these training is defined by the DGCA in the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), and the same is followed by all airlines in India.”

About a particular Mumbai-Riyadh flight from last year, where there were allegations of pairing non-qualified crew, the spokesperson said, "In case of the Mumbai-Riyadh flight being referred to, there was a rostering system and staff error, which led to the incorrect pairing. The cockpit crew members were off-rostered as soon as the management team was made aware of the lapse, and Air India had voluntarily reported the case to the DGCA. Air India had submitted a detailed report to the DGCA, and the matter was thereafter closed.”

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.