Five senior Air India pilots die of Covid in May, vaccine drive hit by shortage

AT A time when Air India’s pilots have repeatedly demanded vaccination for crew and their households, it has emerged that no less than 5 senior pilots with the nationwide provider succumbed to Covid throughout May.
Official sources in Air India and the pilots’ union recognized the pilots who died as Captain Prasad Karmakar, Captain Sandeep Rana, Captain Amitesh Prasad, Captain G P S Gill and Captain Harsh Tiwary.
Tiwary, 37, died on May 30 and was a primary officer on the Boeing 777 plane. All of them had been working wide-bodied plane being flown for abroad flights, and had been part of Vande Bharat Mission.
On May 4, following a menace by its pilots to cease flying if not vaccinated, Air India had mentioned it might organise camps to inoculate all of its staff by the tip of the month. However, three of its camps had been cancelled resulting from non-availability of vaccines, and the drive commenced with a delay on May 15. The airline had earlier held vaccination camps for its staff aged over 45 years.
In a letter written Tuesday to Air India’s Director (Operations) Captain R S Sandhu, the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) famous: “Pilots are being quarantined, testing positive, and succumbing to Covid at an alarming frequency. Even immediate family members are suffering and succumbing to this deadly virus… we fear infecting our family members on returning home after operating VBM (Vande Bharat Mission) flights. With this backdrop, we need support from the company to keep performing our duties and keep our families safe”. The ICPA represents pilots working wide-bodied planes.

On April 14, the ICPA had written a letter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in search of a brief suspension of the necessary requirement of pre- and post-flight breath-analyser exams. The DGCA, on April 27, issued an order, saying that 10 per cent of the flight crew members and cabin crew members shall be subjected to random preflight breath-analyser take a look at for a whole operation of an organisation in India.
All breath-analyser exams had been suspended final 12 months in March on account of the pandemic, however had been resumed in September after the primary Covid curve within the nation began flattening.

In response to a written reply within the Lok Sabha in February this 12 months, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri wrote that as of February 1, a complete of 1,995 Air India staff had contracted Covid, together with crew members, of which 583 folks had been hospitalised. At the time, there have been no fatalities among the many crew however 19 floor workers had succumbed to Covid and different problems. In July 2020, Air India had introduced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh every to assist the households of deceased staff.
Responding to queries despatched by The Indian Express, an Air India spokesperson mentioned: “Air India has always been according top priority to the safety and protection of our flying crew, the frontline ground personnel and also the personnel working in the back offices. Regular pre and post flight tests and round-the-clock assistance on any health related issues were made available for the employees, especially for those in the frontline. A vaccination drive has been going on in full swing for our eligible employees ever since India rolled out its vaccination programme with camps being held regularly at Delhi and all over the network.”