Air India pilot goes high, grounded for being drunk at the time of flight

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – What’s the job of a pilot? To fly the plane safely and take the plane at a high level? Right? but Air India’s pilot took this taking high to an altogether a different level as he himself was high at the time of the flight.

An Air India flight from Delhi to London was delayed after the pilot of the carrier was drunk. Passengers of the Air India flight AI 111 to London was left stranded at the Delhi airport.

The flight was delayed as the senior pilot and Director (Operations) Arvind Kathpalia failed the pre-flight breath analysis test for alcohol. The test deemed him unfit to fly.

The flight was scheduled to take off at 2:45 this afternoon. “A few minutes after the tests were completed and I was sitting for the pre-flight briefing in the next room, the doctor came and informed me that the test conducted in her presence was found positive. When asked why she didn’t tell me right then (earlier), she said something was wrong with the machine and it was taking time to register,” Captain Kathpalia said.

The pilot said he then went to a private agency for a blood test, the results of which will take 48 hours to come.

“We have grounded Captain A K Kathpalia as he failed twice in the breath analyzer test. He was to operate the London flight from New Delhi, but he failed to clear the pre-flight alcohol test,” a senior airline official told.

Drunk pilots is not a new phenomenon but rather endemic in India by given the number of pilots who were caught rather inebriated on the job. According to a report, 132 pilots, over a course of three years, were found to be drunk before their flights at various airports in the country.