Air India pilot dies due to cardiac arrest at Delhi airport, third death in three months

This is not for the first time that a young airline pilot has lost his life due to a cardiac arrest. In August, an Indigo Airline pilot collapsed at a Nagpur airport boarding gate just before flying an aircraft to Pune. A day prior to this incident, a similar incident was reported when a captain working for Qatar Airways has died as a flyer from Delhi to Doha.

A senior DGCA official told ETV Bharat that "Capt Himanil Kumar , underwent his medical on 23rd Aug’23 and was declared FIT, with his medical validity until 30th August 24. Further, there is no fatigue related issue with regard to flying duties. The pilot was undergoing his B777 full type transition, Ground technical course from Octover 3, 2023 , converting from A320 type of aircraft."

"He was on leave from Diwali onwards and resumed today for his class, which had a planned B777 aircraft visit, hence was at the T3 terminal. All his past medical assessments were fine with no detected underlying medical conditions", he added. These tragic incidences has bring forward the issues of stress, fatigue and high-pressure roaster system.

Pilots of Indian carriers for the past few months have been complaining of "high stress", "fatigueness" and "roaster system". In the backdrop of this, the DGCA has recently issued a draft of revised flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules that tries to rein in airlines.