Pilot's death brings focus back on industry norms to handle fatigue

Rules in 2019 allowed pilot to fly commercial passenger flights for two consecutive nights

IndiGo pilot Manoj Subramanyam, 40, died of sudden cardiac arrest at the Nagpur airport around noon of August 17, just before boarding a flight that he was scheduled to fly to Pune. The death has brought back the focus on Indian carriers' internal procedures to handle fatigue among pilots and the flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms, which were put in place by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in April 2019.

Captain Subramanyam had allegedly operated flights on two consecutive nights of August 15 (Chennai-Trivandrum flight) and August 16 (Trivandrum-Pune flight and Pune-Nagpur-flight), according to IndiGo pilots. He then got a rest of about 27 hours and was scheduled to fly the aforementioned Nagpur-Pune flight on August 17.

According to 2019 rules, a pilot can be asked to fly commercial passenger flights for two consecutive nights (between 12 AM-5 AM) once in a week. This was not allowed under the 2011 FDTL rules, which were replaced by the 2019 rules. IndiGo did not respond to queries from 'Business Standard' on how many fatigue reports Captain Subramanyam filed with the airline in 2022 and 2023.

Indian pilots have been up in arms against the 2019 rules. Under the 2011 rules, a pilot was allowed to fly only cargo flights for two consecutive nights, after which he or she was mandated to take rest for at least 54 hours. "However, consecutive night operations for two nights have been extended to passenger operations under the 2019 rules with the post flight rest period reduced to only 24 hours instead of 54 hours previously. There is no basis for this change in the 2019 rules," said the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), a pilots union of Air India, in its intervention application filed earlier this month in the Delhi High Court.

The court case is based on a writ petition filed by the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), another pilots union of Air India, against the 2019 norms. During the last hearing, which took place on August 8, the DGCA said it will bring all the documents that led to the development of 2019 norms.

"Flight time" means time taken to operate a single flight while "flight duty period" is time taken to operate a consecutive series of flights by a pilot. The 2019 rules allows the airlines – under "unforeseen operational circumstances" – to extend a pilot's flight time by maximum 4.5 hours and his or her flight duty period by maximum 9 hours on a cumulative basis for a consecutive period of 28 days. Under the 2011 rules, the limit was three hours for flight time, and six hours of flight duty period, over 30 days. "Thus, the duty period for pilots has been increased, without there being any scientific basis for this increase," the ICPA stated.

Gaurav Taneja, a popular aviation video blogger who has worked as pilot with IndiGo and AirAsia India, counted "random sleep cycles" as one of the reasons behind pilot fatigue. "Pilot rosters are formulated by softwares rather than humans. Every job has a day shift or a night shift unlike aviators. Pilots may operate a ‘day flight’ and a ‘night flight’ on the very next day. Unfortunately our body clock fails to adjust to such rapid adjustment," he said on X, which was formerly known as Twitter.

He also mentioned "minimum rest cycle" as another reason behind pilot fatigue. "DGCA defines a minimum rest period for pilots. Minimum rest is an exception and not a rule. But the softwares are optimized to plan the entire month on minimum rest and maximum duty."

Airlines' internal procedures

An IndiGo captain told 'Business Standard' that pilots have raised issues related to fatigue, especially after consecutive night flights, with the management. "There is not much else that we can do," the pilot added. Unlike Air India, IndiGo pilots do not have a union.

Pilots across airlines question internal company procedures to handle the issue of fatigue. Air India pilots who have been flying between India and Australia since the pandemic have filed more than 50 fatigue reports till date, said a senior executive.

Air India's current policy states that if a pilot has filed more than one fatigue report per month, or more than four fatigue reports per year, then he or she will have to go for a medical counselling session. "Certain pilots are reluctant to file fatigue reports due to this policy as he or she has to go on medical leave," an airline pilot mentioned.

When asked about this matter, Air India spokesperson told 'Business Standard' that the airline "strictly adheres to all the rules and regulations laid down by the DGCA with respect to FDTL for our flight crew".

Pilots are sometimes sent to other cities to fly flights from there. The pilot travels from the base city to that city as a passenger on the airline's flight and this is termed as "deadhead" travel.

Vistara is currently facing shortage of pilots and therefore, it is sending a significant number of pilots daily to the Mumbai base to operate flights from there. "All this deadheading leads to fatigue," one of its pilots mentioned.

Vistara spokesperson stated, “Fatigue management is one of the high focus areas for Vistara. The airline uses a state-of-the-art, fully automated crew rostering system, which includes bio-mathematical modelling solution to efficiently manage fatigue, right from the planning stage to the execution of the roster. We have consciously configured the systems to maintain fatigue levels amongst the lowest in the industry today."

"Moreover, at Vistara, duty timings are planned well below FDTL regulation, keeping enough room to accommodate any irregular operations or disruptions. Also, we currently have sufficient pilots to support our current scale of operations which enables efficient and orderly duty planning,” the spokesperson added.

An Akasa Air pilot also mentioned how fatigue increases due to such deadhead travel. At Air India, pilots have been telling the management that they are allegedly not getting confirmed tickets on time for deadhead travel and this is adding to their stress.

After Captain Subramanyam's death, concerns related to pilot fatigue have been raised from various quarters. Former Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi -- who is a trained pilot himself -- on August 17 said on X, "I have been mentioning that pilots are flying under stress as airlines are concerned mostly with profits. DGCA needs to be alert."