These crew members had regularly been "evading" the breath analyser(BA) test over a period of time for flights to and from certain destinations such as Singapore, Kuwait, Bangkok, Ahmedabad and Goa, sources close to the development told PTI today.
Air India on its part said it is in full compliance of all the norms set by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) and that it will be complying with any directive issued by the the regulator.
DGCA has already served an ultimatum to the Air India management over the alleged safety violations by the airline's crew members ahead of its enforcement action, the sources said.
As part of the DGCA's safety regulations, all pilots and cabin crew must undergo the BA test before and after flights.
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Notably, aircraft rules prohibit crew members from taking any alcoholic drink 12 hours prior to the commencement of a flight.
Since the grounding of such a large number of crew members could cripple the airline's narrow body operations, the DGCA is likely to enforce its action in a phased manner, the sources said.
Stating that Air India is in full compliance of all the DGCA norms, an airline statement said, " We are working with DGCA and will be complying with any directive issued by the DGCA."
"This has been interpreted by the Airline Management as a requirement to carry out post flight medical after completion of their flight which gets over at final destination," it said.
Significantly, the DGCA had in February suspended the flying license of Air India's then executive director for operations, Arvind Kathpalia, for three months after an internal probe found him "guilty" of skipping the breath analyser test for one particular flight.
As per DGCA, 224 pilots and crew members of various airlines failed the test in 2016, whereas 202 pilots and crew members failed the test in 2015.