PIA’s pilots resent overworks, complain of fatigue

KARACHI: Pakistan Airline Pilots’ Association (Palpa) on Saturday alleged the flag carrier’s management of violating safety rules in assigning of crew duties that it said put safety of pilots and flights at risk.

Palpa’s spokesman said the management of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is violating its flight operation manual, flight safety rules of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and safety guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

“(This) is putting both the aircraft and passengers’ safety at risk, while it (the management) has not paid any heed to our repeated reminders regarding safety violations,” the spokesman said in a statement after a general body meeting.

The spokesman said PIA’s management has recently introduced some changes in flight duty time limitation planning, “which carries a very high element of fatigue”.

“The scheduling has failed to keep in mind the effects of fatigue, compounding adverse effect on crew health and therefore safety of flight,” he added. “The majority of our crew are reluctant to accept the flights. However, those who are on contract are forced to carry out these duties under pressure in fear of losing their contracts.”

The Palpa said the association needs to be taken onboard of any policy decision under an agreement that governs its relationship with PIA.

“There are few elements within your team who have their own vested interests and are unnecessarily taking arbitrary actions with regard to crew duties causing unrest within the pilot community, which in turn de-motivates our members and puts flight safety at risk,” the association said in a letter to PIA CEO.

The association’s spokesman said the Civil Aviation Authority and the International Civil Aviation Organization need to address the issue.

Palpa’s official said the present operation is in violation of the bilateral Palpa-PIAC’s working agreement 2011-2013 “as per clause 3.7.1.(c)”.

“Augmented crew operations shall be avoided as far as possible,” the official citied the clause as saying. “However, if unavoidable, it will be applicable on jet aircrafts only and not applicable where frequency of scheduled flight of any equipment is more than once a week.”

The spokesman said sound sleep before flights is considered to be imperative professional duty of a pilot.

Pilots of the national carrier also showed concerns over the pick-and-drop service for the airline crew, particularly pilots.

“The violations (are) causing restlessness and fatigue to the pilots at foreign stations including ongoing Hajj flights,” the spokesman said.

“During the Hajj operation, Palpa received many complaints from its members regarding frequently denied boarding by the traffic staff at the last minute.”

The spokesman said many of the issues are still unresolved even after six months and despite that the issues were brought to the notice of senior management. “Now, the association has decided to put these complaints before the general body of Palpa so that the next line of action could be taken with consensus.”