PPRuNe Forums - Indian FTL Policies:A Recipie For Disaster

Theoretically a pilot should be able to handle almost anything thrown at him. As per the stringent training standards of airline pilots, handling hundreds of combinations of abnormal situations such as bad weather, engineering system malfunctions, navigational computer breakdowns or an engine failure should be child’s play. Provided of course, that a pilot is mentally and physically fit to be able to take the correct decisions and react instantly. And here lies the catch. Some of the crucial factors required for staying alert and fit through out a flight may be completely beyond his control.

A spate of events on board Indian aircraft, unreported by pilots for fear of disciplinary action and harassment from authorities indicates that India could well have some of the lowest safety standards governing pilot fatigue in the world. Many experienced pilots the world over are of the unanimous opinion that a fatal air disaster caused by fatigued Indian pilots is now only a matter of time. And the reason appears to frighteningly simple – the Indian government’s air safety regulator the Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA) appears to be creating rules that are pushing pilots to the edge by helping large airlines lower operational costs and improve bottom lines while severely compromising on passenger safety.

To understand why this is so, it is first important to understand the types of fatigue affecting air crew, the underlying causes of fatigue and the globally accepted methods available to prevent fatigue related air accidents.

Fatigue affects all pilots in all types of aircraft operations and is broadly classified into two types- Transient and Cumulative Fatigue. Transient fatigue is caused by doing regular work and is easy to recover from with a good nights sleep. Cumulative fatigue is that type of fatigue that accumulates over time when the body gets insufficient sleep to recover from transient fatigue.

These two types of fatigue experienced by pilots, if not dealt with properly, can cause a person to react somewhat similarly to being drunk. Symptoms include short term memory loss, impaired judgment; irritability, slurred speech, and blurred vision. Reflexes slow down significantly and a pilot may find it extremely difficult to fly a plane even under normal conditions. If compounded by adverse weather or technical difficulties the results could be catastrophic.

The lack of proper sleep severely affects pilots engaged in international operations. This is because of frequent night flights, early morning/ late night departures and a phenomenon commonly known as “jet lag”.

“Jet Lag” is a physiological condition caused due to alterations to what is known as a Circadian Rhythm.A Circadian rhythm is a “daily time table “ controlled by an internal body clock that regulates daily functions such as hunger and sleep.All animals , including humans have it.There are clear patterns of brain wave activity, hormone production, cell regeneration and other biological activities linked to this daily cycle.

The human brain also reacts to stimuli from sunlight and darkness – and these in turn again affect the Circadian Rhythm.

The intensity of Jet Lag depends on whether the pilot has traveled westward or east ward, crossing Meridians or Time Zones.This is called Meridonial Displacement and he either loses or gains time in the process.The effect of Jet Lag is more severe when travelling from the West to the East.

Thus, both rest obtained both before and after a flight are extremely important to a pilot to ensure that his body and mind are fully readjusted, functional and alert to operate a flight safely.

Disruption to Circadian rhythms has a negative effect in the short term. Fatigue,disorientation and Insomnia are some of them.The pilot is unable to sleep due to insomnia and this leads to more cumulative fatigue, thus creating a vicious cycle.

To tackle fatigue and stress amongst commercial pilots and to make flying a safe mode of transportation for passengers, most countries in the world are required to formulate a set of regulations called Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) and Flight Time Limit (FTL) rules.

The ICAO itself does not make such rules, as each country is expected to formulate its own, since environmental and genetic factors are unique to each country. However, an ICAO document titled “Annexure 6 “and a part of the Chicago Convention, outlines the spirit, objectives and broad purpose of the requirements of these FDTL and FTL rules. India being a signatory to the ICAO also has had to design its own such rules through its regulatory body known as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that reports to the Ministry Of Civil Aviation.

The DGCA rules in force today were framed in 1992 and are part of a document known as the Aeronautical Information Circular No 28 (AIC28 of 92).These rules provide separate provisions for Domestic and International airline operators in the country.

The AIC 28 of 92 does not address any of the complex issues that prevent jet lag like acclimatization, the time of reporting at the airport, crew augmentation due to night flying, jet lag or inadequate rest before a flight, the hours spent on standby duty; and nor does it limit the number of flying duty hours or the number of landings due to the effects of night flying. Many of the other factors taken into consideration by the worlds advanced countries for preventing fatigue such as a minimum scientifically acceptable number of days off every month (normally 8 days) to recover from the snowballing effects of jet-lag are not addressed at all by the Indian DGCA policy.

It blindly goes by a thumb rule that the duration of rest required by an International pilot should be double the numbers of hours flown by him, subject to a minimum of eighteen hours. For example a pilot flying all night from Delhi to Hong Kong on a 5 hour flight is legally entitled to just 18 hours of rest despite the effects of jet lag and having stayed up all night. He could then be legally allowed to again report for duty for a flight for a fourteen hour period which could be extended to eighteen under certain conditions.

Also, as per the same DGCA rules, a pilot flying to London from India after having crossed multiple type zones, stayed awake all night on a ten hour flight is blindly entitled to just 20 hours of rest at London , not keeping in mind the effects of cumulative fatigue and jet lag at all.

Although the present set of rules governing Indian pilots’ duty and rest hours in India is grossly inadequate, in a reply to queries made under the RTI Act, the DGCA claims these were formulated after thorough scientific research by an expert panel in 1988-90.

This committee was headed by the then DGCA Mr. P.C Sen and comprised aviation medicine specialists from the Indian Air Force who were part of a study group formed under Air Marshal S.K Bhalla, DGMS (Air), Indian Air Force. Their main objective was to study fatigue amongst Indian civil air crew and provide recommendations to formulate the DGCA’s FDTL policy that was being proposed at the time. During the course of their study several international policies were studied and the line pilots (those pilots’ not holding administrative posts) of various Indian operators like Air India, Indian Airlines and Vayudoot were interviewed and data collected from them. This in turn was converted to scientific data and recommendations were made based on scientific and mathematical calculations pertaining to the operational work load of Indian pilots.

The DGCA statement that its present policy is based on the same committees report however appears to be grossly misleading as some of the scientific panel’s recommendations were not implemented. As per the recommendations made in the report, the duration of minimum rest for an international pilot should be at least eight times the time zone difference encountered during a duty period. In other words, a pilot flying from London to Mumbai encountering a time zone difference of approximately 5 and a half hours should be given at least 5.5 X 8 = 44 hours of rest. As per current DGCA rules he is entitled to just double the flying hours or 10 X 2 = 20 hours. Clearly the safety recommendations by its own expert panel had been given a go by, by the DGCA.

Luckily however, for air travelers and crew traveling on board Air India, the only long haul Indian international airline at the time, the section of these deficient rules relating to International Operations was not applicable to them from 1992 until 2003.

This was because Air India had its own set of rules bilaterally agreed between pilots and the company that were much more stringent, safer and well within the limits specified by the DGCA. Thus Air India pilots enjoyed lesser duty periods and ample rest on long flights allowing Air India to have an enviable air safety record.

Following a period of industrial unrest in 2003, Air India suddenly stopped following its internal agreement with its own pilots and adopted the inadequate DGCA rules (AIC 28 of 92) as their own.

A particular clause in the DGCA document that allows an airline to extend its Flight Duty Time Limit and Flying Time Limit for pilots due to severe exigencies was invoked by the then Director of Operations of Air India and this continues to be used with the DGCA’s permission even today. This clause ,contained in Para 6.3 of the AIC 28 of 92, states that all safety rules that govern pilot fatigue prevention measures can be flouted under extraordinary circumstances as may be specified by the D.G.C.A. Although no written permission has been obtained from the DGCA, the airline continues to use this ambiguous provision in the rules while the DGCA has looked the other way by offering its tacit support. Various queries made under the RTI Act to the DGCA have yielded misleading answers that misinterpret this clause.

This helped Air India increase the productivity of pilots and improve the airlines bottom line by doing away with the cost of a third back up pilot.

This invoked huge protests from its “line” pilots (i.e. pilots not holding administrative posts and thus the ones who actually fly longer hours) who have been drawn into a long legal battle with the company.

Suddenly, pilots flying as part of a two man crew were scheduled to operate flights of up to ten hours in duration as against the eight hour limit earlier- without a third back up or safety pilot. They were also made to stay on duty for up to 14 hours at a stretch instead of the 12 hour limit followed earlier. To make matters worse the DGCA rules also permit the extension of the hours of duty to 18 hours in case of bad weather or diversions. So in effect a pilot encountering such a situation could be awake for almost 21 hours after having woken up at 2 am in the morning to operate a long international flight! This is prohibited by almost all modern airlines and regulators.

This raises serious issues about passenger insurance. Many experts in the aviation industry wonder whether Insurance companies are actually aware of this dangerous practice by airlines of altering pilots FDTL through an ambiguous provision in the rules. This issue they feel could surface in the event of an air crash as the present system of assessment of accident risk may not consider this factor at all.

In fact soon after Air India began to misuse the special regulatory clause, the DGCA’s Chief Flight Inspector through a letter to Air India questioned the legality of the whole exercise but the matter was soon hushed up by his superiors in the DGCA and not a word was heard from him again.

At the time the current DGCA rules meant to prevent pilot fatigue were introduced in 1992 the only airline from India that operated long international flights was Air India. The situation has changed dramatically today and many private airlines like Jet and Kingfisher are now poised to operate trans-continental ultra long haul jet operations.

Unlike Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways, all major Airlines in the world like KLM, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas and even neighboring Pakistan International Airlines frame their own stringent FDTL rules after bilaterally discussing them with their pilot unions, within the framework of the regulatory requirements so as to ensure greater safety. Most Indian carriers nowadays, apart from state run Indian do not follow such stringent rules of their own at all. Some like Air India even seem to openly violate them.

A recent Indian player in the International market, Jet Airways has also now begun to follow in Air India’s footsteps by implementing the DGCA’s rules as per the AIC 28 of 92 allowing it to operate flights of up to ten hours and stay on duty for a fourteen hour period duration with just two pilots and no back up pilot. Although the DGCA’s rules strictly restrict the usage of these provisions during exceptional circumstances only, it seems to have given its permission for their indiscriminate usage once again.

The DGCA is now proposing policy changes that would make this indiscriminate use of Para 6.3 of the AIC 28 of 92 by Air India and Jet Airways completely legal and resolve all ambiguity over the issue.

The current DGCA rule mandates only one days rest per week apart from the regular rest a pilot is entitled to and this rule is hardly implemented by international carriers such as Air India.Infact, international regulators in advanced countries mandate up to 8 days of rest every four weeks for International Pilots. Ironically, most Air India pilots have been denied all leave for the past three years due to poor man power and fleet management.

This new policy document that is being proposed is called a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) and a draft of this appeared along with a notice on the DGCA website in Oct ’06 asking for comments from all concerned including members of the public. No such notice was given in the media and thus it was probably assumed that members of the public frequently visit the DGCA website.

A series of public meetings was held by DGCA and amongst them some pilots, airline operators and a few airline doctors were present. But the largest association of professional pilots in the country, the Federation of Indian Pilots a registered NGO based at Mumbai was not informed nor intimated despite an official letter from its President Capt Kuldip Puri addressed to the DGCA pointing out serious flaws in the draft document. Another large association of pilots the Indian Pilots Guild representing a large section of Indian pilots flying on International routes was also ignored by the DGCA and the first round of discussions was held with various airline representatives but without the Pilots Guild. After strong protests lodged by the Indian Pilots Guild, the DGCA invited them for a discussion, while stating that the proposed rules had already reached an advanced stage of finalization. In the meeting, the Pilots Guild registered a strong voice of dissent, insisting that a scientific approach should have been adopted and thorough research carried out on Indian Pilots before any new policy changes occur.

Amongst the significant flaws detected by pilots and experts, the constantly prevalent issue of fatigue seems to have been completely ignored by the DGCA again.Infact the proposed changes do not address any of the deficiencies that exist in the present regulations with respect to international operations but only aim to legalize and regularize the arbitrary implementation of special clauses in the present policy. By doing so, Air India and Jet Airways can make their pilots fly more and rest less without worrying about legal repercussions from pilots or passengers. In addition it proposes to reduce the minimum rest time for pilots involved in International operations from 18 hours to 10 hours

Furthermore with the precedence of carrying out scientific research already having been set by the DGCA in 1988 through the formation of the P.C Sen Committee, aviation experts in the country are now seriously questioning the DGCA’s urgency to implement the new rules that will only increase fatigue amongst pilots.

This, despite the glaring fact that no new recent scientific research has been carried out in Indian conditions to gauge the effects of these new rules on air safety. This has been confirmed through RTI queries made to the DGCA.

Furthermore, the P.C Sen Committee report clearly acknowledged that the “Study of aircrew fatigue is specialized in nature best carried out by aviation medical specialists.”

In a reply to NDTV, the DGCA refuted the need for thorough fundamental and scientific research before implementing its new rules stating that such research has already been carried out by global agencies elsewhere and the DGCA is using those to formulate their new policy. Ironically all the worlds leading aviation safety regulators such as the CAA U.K, CAA Singapore and CASA Australia have carried out extensive research of their own in collaboration with local pilots. The DGCA’s own P.C Sen Committee in its report also highlighted the need for carrying out research under Indian environmental conditions and not to follow other countries blindly or in part.

Most pilots reinforce that point of view stating that the mere reference to global regulatory policies is not adequate as they do not take into account Indian genetic and environmental conditions as was clearly observed by the expert DGCA panel in 1988.

Furthermore, pilots have also observed a dangerous practice by the DGCA of selectively including and excluding parts of prevailing international rules to tailor-make its own requirements. This can be proved through the actual comparison of existing DGCA rules and International rules. This obviates the entire purpose of a rational scientific approach towards fatigue prevention.

Indian pilots engaged in international operations are now insisting on a fresh scientific aero-medical Study to be carried out by accredited aviation medicine specialist such as the DGMS (Air), IAF who would presumably have no commercial or vested interests.

The DGMS (Air),Indian Air Force continues to be the medical advisor to the DGCA even today and the DGCA claims that he has apparently been asked for advice in the matter. His comments are not publicly known but the IAF has not been asked to carry out any new scientific research prior to the drafting of the proposed new FDTL policy for flight crew. Unlike in 1988-90 this time, not a single Indian airline pilot has till date been asked to volunteer for any scientific research project.

This is in stark contrast to what the Australians did to formulate their own policy in 2003.

The three-year study set a world first by developing a new risk management-based system for flight crew rostering. This is the first time that an airline (Qantas), the safety regulator (CASA Australia), the Qantas pilots' association and academics have collaborated to find a scientific way of managing the risks associated with fatigue.

The Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) study was conducted in three phases. In the first phase, which is well under-way, volunteer flight crew have kept sleep-wake diaries and worn special activity monitors to obtain data on sleep patterns. Over the past 12 months researchers have collected data on about 8,000 sleep-wake cycles.

In the second phase, as well as collecting sleep-wake data, additional research was undertaken to determine how quickly pilots' body clocks adapt to changes in time zones.

In the final phase, pilots were observed in flight simulators to link real performance measures with predicted fatigue.

The research data was then used to develop methods to determine how different flight tasks are affected by fatigue, and thus rules and policies to determine pilot rosters, shifts and duty time in the cockpit were formulated.

None of these practices have been adopted by the Indian DGCA.

A fresh scientific study on crew fatigue under Indian conditions is imperative as almost 17 years have passed since last study was undertaken and a lot has changed over the years New types of aircraft are being used, the number of flight deck crew has been reduced from four to two under normal conditions ( flight engineers and radio officers are no longer required ,increasing the workload on pilots),the DGCA’s increase in the retirement age of pilots to 65 as against 60 earlier and the commencement of ultra long range flight operations in India for the first time in its history. Furthermore the level of experience to obtain an Indian Commercial Pilots License has been reduced from 250 hours of flying to 200.The DGCA quotes this as a global practice, mainly in countries such as the USA and Europe. But there a rookie pilot would never be allowed to touch the controls of an advanced passenger jet as he would in India and older pilots would be flying according to scientifically planned fatigue prevention measures. Furthermore, operational conditions in India are largely different, with primitive airports, challenging living conditions and vast social differences.

The DGCA maintains that new steps and changes in existing policies are required to tackle a huge shortage of pilots in India. Yet, airlines in India are required by law to furnish a list of the pilots available to them before being allowed to import or lease aircraft. Clearly this is not being done.

While on one hand, it has embarked on a series of policies that are clearly pushing the envelope; the DGCA has largely ignored the need for upgrading the training infrastructure of Indian pilots and thereby prevent a pilot shortage. Flying clubs are in shambles and the entire written examination process of pilots by the DGCA is alarmingly deficient.

Ironically, an Indian citizen having undergone his flying training in a foreign country to obtain a commercial pilots license has to undergo a laborious process to convert it to an Indian License before he can be employed in India. He has to undergo a series of written exams conducted by the Central Examination Organization (CEO) of the DGCA before he is allowed to fly in India. Surprisingly, a foreigner employed by an Indian carrier can continue to fly with the same foreign license provided he undergoes a simple interview.

In a shocking revelation, it was recently found that not one official in the DGCA’s Central Examination Organization that prepares written questions for pilots’ examinations is a pilot. As a result the standard of examinations is poor and hundreds of prospective commercial pilots or senior co pilots awaiting promotions are failing examinations every time for no fault of their own. To make matters worse, pilots written exams are held once every three months unlike in the USA where they are available on line every week.

This has significantly contributed to an artificial pilot shortage in India necessitating new rules such as the proposed FDTL policy for pilots.

Ironically, the Commission for Railway Safety is headed by the Ministry Of Civil Aviation, while no independent Aviation Safety or Accident Investigation board exists in India to watch over the DGCA.The absence of a neutral watch dog headed by technocrats to look over the DGCA, such as the NTSB that overlooks the FAA in the USA seems to have made the DGCA unaccountable and dangerously deviant from its duty towards the thousands of Indian passengers whose lives depend on them. The DGCA being the sole aviation regulatory authority in India regulates its own policies and is also in charge of their implementation. Nowhere in the advanced world do regulators unquestioningly compromise on established safe practices in the interest of the short term commercial requirements of local operators and get away scot free.

In fact Air India has even gone one step further to ensure its pilots fly more, by proposing a new set of service conditions for pilots wherein pilots who do not fly for being ill may be financially penalized by the airline. Such proposals violate the basic principles of flight safety by inducing ill pilots to fly by not disclosing health problems and are against the Indian Aircraft Rules that strictly prohibit pilots from flying if they are aware that they are ill. Ironically, this proposal was being tabled through the office of its Director of Air Safety, who regularly interacted with the DGCA and whose very job is to ensure flight safety.

And all this continues under the very nose of the local DGCA office at Bombay that is barely a hundred metres away.

While Indian aviation surges forward with new airplanes and airports, the darkest clouds seem to be gathering within the shadowy walls of some of its airlines and the Indian DGCA.