The decision also comes after a recent incident where an Air India pilot and his co-pilot got involved in a scuffle inside the cockpit.
Following the recent Germanwings scare where a pilot locked his co-pilot outside the cockpit and crashed a passenger laden plane in a mountain, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India might make psychological test mandatory for the aspiring pilots.
The decision also comes after a recent incident where an Air India pilot and his co-pilot got involved in a scuffle inside the cockpit. The government, therefore, is planning to have a three-phase monitoring of the psychological health of aspiring pilots that will start right from the time the aspirant passes his 12th exams.
A senior official said, "The psyche of a person wanting to join a flying school will be checked. Only if found mentally fit at that stage, will he or she be allowed to take flying classes and chart out on the course to become a pilot."
The second phase of the mental health test will be included in the DGCA tests. Clearing the second stage will be a pre-requisite to get the pilot license whether commercial or personal. "The DGCA exams will have psychometric questions too," said the official. For the final phase, the DGCA will make it mandatory for schedule airlines to conduct psychometric exams at regular intervals. "The DGCA has two doctors from the Indian Air Force. They are consulting IAF psychologists to finalise the three-phase testing that we are considering," said a senior DGCA official.
The airline pilots have welcomes the tests however, they have also urged the DGCA to focus on factors that affect their psychology. A senior commander said, " Even perfectly normal persons with a positive attitude will be adversely affected if their airlines fail to pay them on time or invoke pay cuts for no rhyme or reason. For the past few years, cockpit conversation in a few airlines has been limited to financial issues and whether their airline will survive or not."
Earlier in the month, an Air India pilots' body had also urged DGCA to look into the issue of deployment of a section of its "stressed" junior pilots in the cockpit. The body stated that some 30-odd co-pilots were being "forced to work overtime" without any remuneration, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), in a letter to the aviation regulator alleged that "putting these highly-stressed and financially over-burdened co-pilots in the same cockpit... is a perfect recipe for disaster."
Commenting on the decision of monitoring mental health of the pilots, a training captain said, "This makes the DGCA's role more critical. They should not focus just on pilots' psyche alone, but focus on their overall work environment as well," said a senior training captain."
Also Read: AI pilots' body writes to DGCA about 'stressed' junior pilots in cockpit
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