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Thirty Indonesian Pilots Grounded for Flying Overtime 25/01/2013
Thirty Indonesian pilots have been temporarily banned from flying for exceeding the maximum working limit in the air.
“Exceeding flying hours causes fatigue and affects flight safety,” said Bambang Ervan, spokesman of the Transportation Ministry, as quoted by Tempo.com on Thursday.
He refused to give details of the airlines.
Each pilot’s grounding term would be adjusted according to the length of their overtime.
The ministry limited the flying hours of a pilot to only nine hours in a day, 30 hours in a week, 110 hours in a month and 1,050 hours in a year.
For cabin crew, their maximum limit — which includes flying hours — is 14 hours in a day, with at least nine hours rest before the next flight.
Bobby Mamahit, head of the human resources development at the Transportation Ministry, said the lack of pilots in Indonesia was one of the underlying reasons behind pilots working overtime.
Bobby told Tempo.com that Indonesian airlines needed 4,000 additional pilots, adding that the country needed on average between 700 and 800 pilots per year.
Alvin Lie, an aviation observer, recently told Tempo.com that it was airline management who forced pilots to work overtime.
“If they [pilots] refused overtime, the next month they would not be given flying hours [by the airline], so their income would drop to only a basic salary,” he said.
But Bambang said that the pilots should be able to reject the request of the airlines to work overtime, rather than face sanctions from the government as the airlines would not be sanctioned.
“Pilots are the ones who suffer the loss if they fly overtime,” Bambang said.