Daughter of senior AI exec travels in bunk meant for pilots

In an alleged violation of aviation safety norms, a daughter of a senior Air India executive travelled in the bunk which is only meant for resting of flight crew members as per the DGCA norms, during one of the airline's flight to Newark recently.

K V J Rao, a union leader and former Air India cabin crew, has also alleged in his complaint, lodged with the secretary in the civil aviation ministry V Somasundaran (rpt V Somasundaran) that a first class passenger was forced to sit in the executive class on one of the national carrier's flight to Delhi from Frankfurt to accommodate a senior bureaucrat last month.

According to Rao, the daughter of one senior Air India pilot was first allowed to sit on the jump seat and then rest in the bunk during the 14-hour long flight to Newark from Mumbai on December 13.

A jump seat in the aircraft is meant for non-operating staff.

"For take off, rest and landing she was illegally allowed to sit in the cabin crew horizontal rest area (bunk) by the commander. Immediately after the flight took off, the First Officer of the flight was asked to relax in the vertical seat (jump seat) and denied his horizontal rest in the bunk beds. When the second set of cockpit crew went to rest she was then moved to the cabin crew rest area," Rao said in his complaint.

When contacted, Air India Spokesperson refused to comment on the issue, while Somasundaran (rpt Somasundaran) said he was not aware of any such complaint.