Author's posts
Flouting Safety, Stymied DGCA and Bollywood!
A domestic commerical airliner in India has been recently found to have flouted flight safety norms almost four months back. The captain of the aircraft allowed a supernumerary pilot to undertake landing, when that pilot was neither qualified nor authorised for piloting duties! Indian DGCA recommended suspension of the concerned airline’s flight safety officer. The …
Hypoxia Training – Essentially Useful.
Most military aircrew undergo hypoxia training, including experience in decompression chamber, to understand the ill-effects of the silent but deadly hazard of in-flight hypoxia [1]. Symptoms experienced during the classic mask-off hypoxia indoctrination in altitude/decompression chamber correlates well with reported in-flight symptoms [2]. The objectives of hypoxia indoctrination, an effects-based training, is to make aircrew …
Medical Incidents in Air: Cabin Crew reports…
Increase in volume of airline passenger traffic is leading to an increase in number of in-flight medical incidents [1, 2]. A large number of such incidents are, in fact, “identified, managed and documented by cabin crew without the involvement of medically trained persons” [3]. Common in-flight medical conditions are fainting or syncope (incidence 10-53.5%); gastrointestinal …
NVG: Why the Neck Pains?
An informal query on a professional forum whether helicopter pilots suffer from neck pain while using NVG (1), a small group chose to share their thoughts and concerns. Eight of the respondents affirmed that they had discomfort or pain, including disc prolapse and pressure on the nerves as reported by one pilot each. However, there …
Hire Av Med Specialists – DGCA. Are the Airlines Listening?
Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India in an Advisory Circular to all Indian operators of scheduled air transport services has recommended that they employ the services of Aviation Medicine Specialist. This has come as a fresh impetus on part of DGCA to prod the Airlines to ensure “effective maintenance and monitoring of health …