Amid allegations that the Mangalore air crash could have occurred due to pilot fatigue, the regulator has set down norms on what airlines need to follow to avoid that.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has come out with detailed safety guidelines for commercial aviation.
The norms were triggered by the Mangalore air crash in May, in which 158 people died.
Amid allegations that the crash could have occurred due to pilot fatigue, the regulator has set down norms on what airlines need to follow to avoid that. From now on, all airlines will have to establish flight time and duty period limitations and a rest scheme for pilots and cabin crew. DGCA has specified that these details will now have to be included in the operations manual of airlines.
In case the airlines thinks of introducing variations in duty and rest hours, the airline will have to seek permission from DGCA for this. Besides, airlines will also have to maintain detailed flight time records, duty periods and rest periods of pilot and cabin crew.
Till now, airlines had been following the DGCA’s flight duty time limitation (FDTL) guidelines, implemented in 1992. But this did not make it clear whether all airlines were maintaining details of duty timings and rest periods.
An official from a private airline said that with an automated rostering system in place, no pilot or cabin crew can be rostered for duty if h/she is within the rest period. “Our software tracks periods of duty and rest,” he said. Another airline official said that flight duty hours are checked regularly and as per new norms, rest periods will also be have to be tracked.
The DGCA has also asked airlines to keep track of the total cosmic radiation that crew are exposed to over 12 months. This applies to flights operated 49,000 ft above sea level.
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