Arvind Kathpalia, Air India’s director of operations, failed two breath tests before he was scheduled to take controls of an Air India jet scheduled to fly from London Heathrow to New Delhi on Sunday, November 11th.
Air India is carrying out an investigation into his conduct but confirmed today that it had already fired Kathpalia. It is believed that he has also resigned from the board of the state-run airline and India's safety authority has taken away his pilots licence for three years.
The airline says Amitabh Singh, executive director for training, will now take on the operations director’s responsibilities for the foreseeable future.
This is not the first time that Kathpalia has allegedly been intoxicated and under the influence of alcohol when turning up for work. Most recently he had been suspended for a period of three months during 2017 for refusing to take breathalyser tests.
