Air India pilot refuses to fly after emergency landing in Jaipur, cites duty hours

After making an emergency landing at the Jaipur airport due to bad weather, an Air India pilot flying from London to Delhi refused to fly on Sunday. Around 350 passengers were left stranded at the Jaipur airport for nearly five hours.

Reportedly, the pilot cited flight duty hours as the reason for his refusal to fly.

The passengers had to seek alternative arrangements to reach Delhi due to the incident. The AI-112 flight was scheduled to reach Delhi at 4 am on Sunday but was divered to Jaipur. The flight circled around the sky 10 minutes before being diverted to Jaipur.

Though the flight received clearance from the Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC) to resume its journey after two hours of emergency landing, the pilot refused to fly the plane.

One of the passengers, named Adit, took to Twitter to share the inconvenience caused to the passengers. "Passengers have not been assisted with any recourse to reaching their final destinations," Adit tweeted.

He also criticised Air India for its lack of assistance.

Air India responded to his tweet saying their team is trying its best to minimise the inconvenience of the passengers.

Later, the airline issued a statement saying that a fresh set of crew was immediately arranged to operate the flight.

"While the aircraft was waiting for Delhi weather to improve and take off, the cockpit crew came under FDTL, that is Flight Duty Time Limitations. Pilots cannot operate a flight once they come under the FDTL, as laid down by regulatory authorities. Air India accords top priority to safety of its passengers and crew and strictly adhering to the operations regulations, immediately arranged a fresh set of crew to operate the flight," said the airline in the statement.