AI pilot unions demand removal of DGCA chief Arun Kumar over Kozhikode plane crash comments

NEW DELHI: Two leading pilot unions of Air India on Tuesday said DGCA chief Arun Kumar must be immediately replaced with a suitable candidate with substantial knowledge of the aviation sector and operational experience as his comments reveal a total lack of technical know-how and an “amateurish view” of the Kozhikode plane crash.
According to the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Union (ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG), Kumar said during one of the televised interviews that the plane’s “landing was not smooth”.
On another channel, Kumar stated that the “two fellows are dead…and the landing it seems was not appropriate”, according to a letter jointly written by the two unions to civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday.
Pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, 58, and co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar, 32, were the ones operating the Air India Express flight with 190 that overshot the runway and crashed at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday night.
Both pilots, along with 16 other people on board, died in the accident.
Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India. The two deceased pilots were not part of either of the two aforementioned unions.