Key Points
Civil Aviation regulator DGCA has proposed to make significant changes to its rules which will ensure pilots get more rest and restrict the hours they work at night in the cockpit..
The regulators action comes after complaints from a large number of pilots that they are being stretched by the airlines using the regulators soft rules which ensures they are not violating the norms..
According to the proposed rules which have been opened for public consultation, the regulator has cut down the maximum flight duty period from 13 to 10 hours for a pilot operating at night that is between 12 AM and 6 AM..
We want to limit the number of flights a pilot does during that period, a senior DGCA official said.. There has been an exponential increase in the number of red eye flights which depart at night and arrive the next morning over the last few years due to slot constraint at metro airports...
Over the last four months, DGCA had collected pilot fatigue data during spot checks and surveillance of airlines to see if regulations related to flight duty times or fatigue need to be changed, the official said...
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