Statutory warning: Your pilots might be fighting over trivial issues in cockpit and you may never know about it!

Just when the aviation world seems to be going frenzy over rising concern over pilots' mental health after the Germanwings crash recently, a Delhi bound flight in Jaipur has sparked off another controversy. A Times of India report revealed that the commander of a ready-for-takeoff Air India flight in Jaipur has been abused and beaten by the co-pilot.

Though Air India in an official statement wanted to hush up the matter by saying, "there was an argument between the two and nothing more,” a source confirmed to the national daily that the fight arose because “the commander told his co-pilot to take down critical take off figures for the flight. This involves writing critical facts like number of passengers on board, take off weight and fuel uptake on a small paper card (trim sheet) that is displayed in front of the pilots for the entire duration of the flight. The co-pilot took offense at this and reportedly beat up the captain.”

"In the larger interest of the airline", the commander decided to go ahead with the flight and flew to Delhi. The normal procedure would have been to report this incident in Jaipur, but that would have led to the flight being cancelled and passengers being left stranded. Thus the captain made a log entry with AI movement control after landing in Delhi, and then he flew to his home base, Mumbai.

The co-pilot in question has a track record of rough behaviours in the past as well. "Three years back, he asked the commander of a flight to come out of the cockpit, remove the stars on his shirt collar (appulates) and then fought with him. A year later, another commander complained about his 'rude and unbecoming' behavior in the cockpit and questioned his state of mind," a senior commander told the Times of India.

The mainline daily could neither reach DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy nor deputies for any official comments.

(Image: Reuters)