June 25, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1429

NEW DELHI, June 24: Around 50 pilots each year in India are being grounded because they had consumed alcohol before taking a flight, the country’s civil aviation authorities said on Tuesday. The Director General of Civil Aviation, a body controlling airline operations in India, said dozens of pilots are found to have consumed alcohol during routine pre-medical tests every year.

India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world with dozens of new airlines competing with each other everyday, often resulting in pilots forced to fly at short notices.

India has about 4,500-5,000 commercial pilots, and another 2,500 are undergoing training. Civil aviation rules specify that pilots and cabin crew cannot consume alcohol 12 hours before taking a flight. “We do catch pilots who had taken alcohol routinely and so does the airlines,” a DGCA official said on Tuesday. —Reuters