Indo-Asian News Service
Chennai, Jan 17: An Air India pilot Saturday allegedly punched an engineer after an argument that led to the Chennai-Delhi flight getting delayed, an airport official said.
According to sources, the pilot punched the engineer on his nose after an argument and later locked himself in the cockpit.
The flight was delayed due to some technical reasons, and the pilot was not satisfied about the rectification of the snag and refused to fly.
This led to an argument and the alleged punching of the engineer. The engineer with his nose bleeding was admitted to a hospital and his colleagues have threatened to go on strike.
The engineers demanded a police complaint against the pilot.
Sources said Air India has instituted a probe into the incident, and the pilot was derostered.
The flight took off with a new crew after a couple of hours.
According to reliable sources, the plane from Mumbai was scheduled to take off at 9.45am to Delhi en-route to Paris and a team of technicians were readying the plane for departure.
‘‘Staff were cleaning the windshield and attending to other technical aspects inside the cockpit when pilot Manik Lal walked in. He was not pleased to see too many people inside the cockpit and asked them to be out. Flight engineer VT Kannan reached the cockpit and informed the pilot the plane was yet to be handed over to the crew for flying. But the pilot refused to pay heed to the explanation,’’ said an official.
This led to an argument which snowballed into a fight in which the flight engineer was injured and was admitted to a private hospital, he added.
