Both pilots have been derostered.
AB Wire
NEW DELHI: Two Air India pilots were derostered after a scuffle broke out between the two in the cockpit of a plane just before it was scheduled to depart Jaipur on Monday. According to The Hindustan Times, the brawl ensued after the captain addressed his deputy as “uncle.”
Denying that the copilot “physically” accosted his captain, an Air India spokesperson said there were only heated exchanges of minor argument, which was later resolved as well.
“We have derostered both the commander and the pilot of the Jaipur-Delhi flight pending enquiry,” the spokesperson said.
Sources told the Times that the senior pilot was actually younger in age than his co-pilot, and called him uncle while asking him to prepare mandatory flight details.
“The co-pilot of the flight was quite senior in age. When the commander was readying for take-off, he asked him to take down some details, but addressing him as uncle. The junior pilot took umbrage it and this led to argument,” an unnamed source told the Times.
The co-pilot allegedly took offense and then attacked the captain, but the flight did eventually take off. A complaint was filed later by the commander.
The tragic Germanwings crash that occurred last month also involved pilots engaged in a physical altercation, although in that case, Captain Patrick Sonderheimer was attempting to smash in the cockpit door, which copilot Andreas Lubitz had locked before fatally steering the plane and all of its passengers into a mountainside killing everyone on board. Sonderheimer was subsequently described as a hero by his family.