Radisson Hotel, Delhi, Thursday, 1999-03-04 12:00 local (Z+5:30)
To blow or not to blow, to piss or not to piss, those are the questions. The Indian Pilot Group is harassing us, and attempts to make us take random drug and alcohol tests are one of the means being used. Other means range from the serious to the ludicrous, from trying to remove our cockpit voice recorders—the most serious—to the denial of milk on our ferrying legs—easily the most ludicrous.
You'll need a cast list to follow this bureaucratic little drama:
- AI—Air India, India's state-owned, state-run airline
- ALPA—the U.S. Airline Pilot's Association
- DGCA—the Director General Civil Aviation, the Indian equivalent to the FAA
- FAA—the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency
- ICAO—the International Civil Aviation Organization, that part of the U.N. that defines wordwide aviation standards and serves as a coordinating body between the national equivalents of the FAA
- IFALPA—the International Federation of Airline Pilot Associations, the international assocation of the national airline pilot unions
- IPG—the Indian Pilot Group, the Indian equivalent to ALPA
AI has traditionally used foreign carriers to supplement their capacity. They sign wet-lease contracts with these carriers, that is, they pay for that carrier's crews, airplanes and fuel to get the job done. AI has to do this for peak load situations such as the Hajj; they simply do not have the airplanes to do otherwise. They also do it for situations like a couple of years ago when all of their 747s were down for maintenance because of a mechanics strike. Tower did about three months worth of flying for them then.
AI also likes to use wet-leases whenever possible because it cuts down on their losses. They can hire a foregn carrier to do the job far more cheaply than they can do it themselves. Their bloated system cannot fly their airplines without losing money. They have never shown a profit, and losses typically run in excess of a billion dollars a year if my memory serves me correctly.
However, the IPG, recently taken over by a group of young, militant pilots, wants to force AI to quit using wet-leases, and have pressured friends in AI operations and the DGCA to do whatever they can to hinder such operations. They were successful in causing some serious delays, but the threatening or harassment of crew members internationally is considered very serious because of the potential consequences, and the situation has now mostly been resolved by the following:
- The FAA has told India that the U.S. landing rights for all Indian airlines are at risk should DGCA personnel continue the harassment.
- ALPA, through IFALPA, has requested the IPG to quit hasseling “fellow union members.”
- At the FAA's request, ICAO has pointed out to the DGCA that by the ICAO treaty, a treaty to which India is a signatory, cockpit voice recorders are to be removed only for purposes of accident investigaton.
- Air India has “censured”, whatever that means, the individual pilots within the IPG that initiated the harassment and other AI personnel who helped them.
Personally, I had to contend with only two incidents. First was the request for a breathalyzer test of my crew after a Delhi arrival. I politely declined by telling them that we would be happy to take such a test if it was requested by Tower Air pilot management or the FAA and if the test was conducted to U.S. standards. The delay caused while they discussed the situation was minimal. To date they have not gotten any drug or alcohol tests from any Tower Air crew member, and it appears the DGCA has now quit trying.
I also had one “milk incident”. An AI manager sympathetic to the IPG sent a telex to AI's Jeddah station ordering that on the flights from Jeddah to India, only water, soft drinks, and crew meals were to be loaded. It specifically exempted milk. These are ferry flights—no passengers—during the first half of the Hajj. I first found out about this when the purser came into the cockpit at Jeddah complaining that the caterer wouldn't give us any milk. When I found the AI rep, he confirmed that they would not give us any milk.
We were still half an hour to forty minutes from departure, so I had time for one try at resolving the problem without causing a delay and thus playing into the IPG's hands. I took out a 500 riyal note, extended it toward the rep, and asked him if he would do me the personal favor of going to the one of the snack shops in the closest terminal—we were out on the maintenance ramp and he had a car—and buying two liters of milk for me. Five hundred riyals is about $133, and I was hoping the shock value of handing him that much for such a minor purpose would get results. It did. He refused the money, but said he would get us some milk, and it showed in a few minutes. These kind of games are played here all the time. Most of the time I'm not very good at them, but occasionally I win.
Time for my nap before returning to Jeddah.
Take care....Terry