NEW DELHI, Nov 4 (Reuters) – India’s air security watchdog proposes lowered evening work hours and extra relaxation for pilots, amongst measures to handle rising complaints of pilot fatigue, in response to draft rules seen by Reuters on Saturday.
The proposal from the Directorate Normal of Civil Aviation come greater than two months after it determined to conduct a review of pilot fatigue information collected throughout spot checks and surveillance of airways.
The assessment was launched after an IndiGo (INGL.NS) pilot collapsed and died in August earlier than his flight.
Adjustments would come with chopping the utmost flight responsibility interval to 10 hours from 13 hours for pilots working at evening, and growing the minimal weekly relaxation interval to 48 hours from 36 hours.
The directorate didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the draft.
Such rule modifications are often circulated for feedback from airways, pilots and different stakeholders earlier than being finalised.
Whereas pilot fatigue is a world downside, India is on the coronary heart of the matter because the world’s fastest-growing aviation market, with tons of of planes on order by IndiGo and Tata group-owned Air India.
IndiGo, India’s largest airline, has stated the pilot who died had a 27-hour break earlier than responsibility and was in good well being.
Reporting by Aditi Shah; Writing by YP Rajesh; Enhancing by William Mallard
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