What Is The Warning Given To Air India By DGCA For The Pilot Duty Violations?

Civil aviation regulator DGCA (Directorate General Of Civil Aviation) has given warning to Air India’s Accountable Manager and CEO Campbell Wilson after finding the airline’s response as “unsatisfactory”. The civil aviation regulator found the response unsatisfactory to the show cause notice issued in relation to flight duty time violations by the crew of two long-haul flights. These long-haul flights ere operated in May. Campbell, who is the CEO and MD, is also the Accountable Manager of the Tata Group-owned airline.

“Air India is in receipt of the DGCA letter with regard to rostering issues on two long-haul flights reported in mid-May that arose due to a different interpretation of a permission that was granted to mitigate the border-related airspace closure”, an airline spokesperson said. According to the spokesperson, this was corrected immediately after the right interpretation was conveyed to them. The spokesperson further added that Air India remains fully compliant with the rules as mentioned in a PTI report on August 13, 2025, Wednesday. 

Why Air India is under the radar?

The exemption granted to Air India by DGCA to reduce the border-related airspace closure was misused by Air India as a reason to keep the pilots flying for a longer period of time. Air India also misused it to cut the number of cockpit crew from 3 to 2 on its two separate flights covering Bengaluru–London route. Both these flights did not pass through Pakistan’s airspace. The DGCA took serious note of the situation and one of its senior officials also called it “oversmartness”, according to a Times of India report. The special relaxation on pilot duty hours ended the same day that flight AI-171 crashed. 

What was the AI-171 flight crash?

The AI-171 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight had crashed on June 12 and 241 people in the flight and 19 on the ground were killed. 

Also read: ‘Ratan Tata Would Never Allow This’: US Attorney in India Demands Truth Behind AI171 Tragedy