NEW DELHI, India: An Air India plane witnessed some tense situation
when the co-pilot of the flight allegedly assaulted the captain in the cockpit before take-off, according to the Indian media.
The incident took place on Sunday evening when the flight (AI 611) was about to take off for Delhi from Jaipur, and in the meantime the captain asked the co-pilot to “take down critical take off figures for the flight”.
“The co-pilot took offence at this and reportedly beat up the captain,” a source was quoted as saying by the Times of India while numerous airline sources also confirmed the incident saying the co-pilot abused and beat up the captain.
A spokesperson for the Air India said that both the pilots including captain the co-pilot were derostered.
“There were only heated exchanges between the captain and co-pilot over some issue. We have already derostered the two pilots pending an inquiry,” the spokesperson said.
The Times of India said citing senior AI commanders that the co-pilot reportedly faced similar charges in the past too.
“Three years back, he asked the commander of a flight to come out of the cockpit, remove the stars on his shirt collar (appulates) and then fought with him. A year later, another commander complained about his ‘rude and unbecoming’ behavior in the cockpit and questioned his state of mind,” a senior commander said.
