SpiceJet pilots under pay-cut stress, safety hit, alleges ex-Capt; airline denies allegation – Times of India

SpiceJet pilots under pay-cut stress, safety hit, alleges ex-Capt; airline denies allegation - Times of India


MUMBAI: The massive pay cut imposed by SpiceJet for the past eighteen months has put its pilots under tremendous financial stress which has turned the airline into a flying hazard, said a pilot who resigned from SpiceJet this year after nine years of service.
In a damning open letter sent to the Prime Minister and top civil aviation officials on Tuesday, Capt Vinodh Loganathan said that there have been instances of first officers and crew breaking down in the cockpit and so had to be consoled.
SpiceJet in a statement to TOI, strongly denied the allegation of flight safety hazard due to financial stress as ``completely false, baseless” SpiceJet said it "has a strong flight safety culture and an impeccable safety record. It continues to maintain the highest standards of safety in operations with no compromise on quality.”
The airline said: "The ex-employee had a history of poor performance on account of his attitude, failure in tests and exams and being abusive to his colleagues especially juniors.”
Refuting this, Capt Loganathan said: "I have never failed any tests. Their allegation is absolutely frivolous. I have documentary proof.”
Capt Loganathan said he had applied for a post in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation a few months ago and SpiceJet vice-president, operations had sent an NOC letter to the DGCA on June 10, 2021. He shared the said letter with TOI. It stated that Capt Loganathan had "maintained a high level of proficiency, integrity and no penalty or administrative action whether major or minor was imposed against him” when he was employed with SpiceJet.
The former SpiceJet pilot, in his August 31 letter, titled, 'The flight safety hazard called SpiceJet’ said that while other airlines have imposed a 15-30 % salary cut, SpiceJet employees, including pilots have been under a 70-85 % cut since March 2020. SpiceJet did not respond to a specific query about the quantum of salary cut.
The letter said that many pilots have sold their houses or have been forced out of their homes by the banks due to EMI non-payment.
"Anyone who asks for their salary are off rostered and forced to resign….Many pilots and cabin crew are financially stressed and are not in a state of mind to operate. A financially stressed set of crew are a flight safety threat and since they are not in the right state of mind a crash can happen anytime," said Capt Loganathan’s letter.
"I know I have taken a huge risk by bringing this out in the open and SpiceJet will make sure that there will be no place left for me in aviation in India. However, being an aviator, for the sake of my unfortunate colleagues and being a citizen of this great country, I consider it my duty to bring this safety hazard to you," said the 38-year old captain, who has over 5,500 hours of flying experience. The pilot alleged that when he raised the salary matter, he was verbally abused by certain SpiceJet officials, his flying duties stopped and he was forced to resign.
Capt Mohan Ranganathan, an air safety expert said: ``The two classic examples of pilot suicide due to financial stress are SilkAir crash in December 1997 and Egypt Air 990 crash off the east coast of US. One of the major causes of accidents is delayed crew reaction to a potentially dangerous situation. When you are under such kind of stress, reaction time could be delayed by a few seconds and that could lead to a fatal accident.”
SpiceJet issued a 500 word statement. Here it is in full.
"We refer to the email communication being circulated by one Captain Vinod Longanathan agitating and alleging flight safety hazard at SpiceJet and giving an unfounded colour of being an unsafe airline due to financial stress caused to certain unnamed employees are completely false, baseless and we deny them all strongly.
The ex-employee had resigned from the Company at the start of Covid in 2020. He later withdrew his resignation. Captain Vinod was later off-rostered for indiscipline. The ex-employee had a history of poor performance on account of his attitude, failure in tests and exams and being abusive to his colleagues especially juniors. The specific instances are well documented in his company records. When the Company decided to terminate his services on account of his conduct, he chose to submit his resignation rather than face “services terminated on account of poor conduct”. Taking a compassionate view the Company accepted his resignation.
This entire communication is an attempt at propagating falsities. We hope that the media sees through this and is not misled into reporting frivolous and defamatory allegations and should instead seek proof from the ex-employee to substantiate these allegations.
Insinuating that a fellow colleague committed suicide due to financial stress caused by salary issues is completely unfounded and based upon wrong surmises. The Company has already clarified that the crew member had been flying throughout and was being paid regularly like all flying crew.
To manipulate facts and mention this incident in the letter is another deliberate attempt to sensationalise the unfortunate passing away of a colleague and create a scare. Captain Vinod is attempting to actually engage into a media trial of an event which by no stretch of imagination draws any such conclusion.
This is an attempt by a disgruntled ex-employee to sensationalise and create a false safety scare and link it to an unfortunate crash (outside India).) The allegations in the letter are an outright lie and an attempt to malign the Company and would be met with strongest legal action.
The conduct of the ex-employee can itself be a threat to the cockpit for which he is presently pledging and trumpeting this revolting desecration. SpiceJet has a strong flight safety culture and an impeccable safety record. It continues to maintain the highest standards of safety in operations with no compromise on quality.
Aviation is one of the most severely affected industry in the current pandemic. Like airlines worldwide, SpiceJet introduced a revised pay structure for its flying crew last year and has been paying them accordingly. The salary cuts announced in April 2020 were partially rescinded last year itself. There were no pay cuts for colleagues in the lowest pay grades and the CMD took the highest pay cut during this time. For the present financial year, he has actually not drawn any salary due to stressed operations on account of second wave despite engaging full time at work. The other initiatives of the airline and primarily SpiceXpress have actually helped the airline sustain during these challenging times.”





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