KARACHI, June 3: At least 62 cabin crew members of a private airline – Shaheen Air International (SAI) – have violated the flight duty time limitation law (FDTL) and flew for more than the prescribed time, which is a serious air safety hazard, it emerged here on Monday.

According to sources, the Civil Aviation Authority did not take any concrete steps on this highly sensitive issue which could lead to a disaster and was taking it very lightly. The CAA could take stern steps against the cabin crew, including grounding them; or against the airline, whose licence could be suspended or even cancelled, to restrain them from compromising air safety and putting passengers’ lives in danger.

The sources said the FDTL was the time the cabin crew could carry out their duty on board an aircraft at one stretch after which the remaining period became mandatory. The limit is set so that the airlines did not force the cabin crew to work for longer periods which would create fatigue and prove detrimental to safety of the flight and risk the passengers in times of emergencies. The time limit was placed so that the cabin crew took adequate rest and remained fresh during the entire duty time in the flight.

The sources said that of the 62 cabin crew members at least 14 were seniors holding the posts of lead cabin crew, who guided/ trained the juniors. They wondered that if the seniors themselves violated the laws what they would teach their juniors.

The sources said a list of lawbreakers, prepared by the CAA, mentions the names of the lead (senior) cabin crew as: S. Waqas Sartaj, Mehreen Wakil, Rabia Naeem, Aansa Yasmeen, M. Irfan Khan, Safia Malik, Sumaira Munewar, Rabia Mahar, Tanveer Ahmed, Arsalan Moazzam, Farhat Ishaq, Mohammad Shaiq, Faiza Aslam, and Sabiha Tabassum.

The names of the other cabin crew members, according to the last prepared by the CAA, include Fouzia Murtaza, Saima Baksh, Hina Khalid, Syeda Nausheen Zehra, Zamirina Khan, Ayesha Riaz, Tahira Naz, Sana Gul, Anum Shahid, Banafsha Rashid, Saira Riaz, Reema, Bisma Javed, Qurat-ul-Aain, Sanam Mirani, Sadia Syed, Falak Shahzadi, Nida Saleem, Rifat Tahira, Nimra Rasool, Mehreen Khan, Wafa Bhutto, Kiran Abu Tahir, Asma Danial, Madiha Kareem, Sehrish Karim, Shobeen Akhtar, Mohammad Ali, Aziz Butt, Sohail Hassan, Affan Ahmed Usmani, Danial Asif, Faraz Khan, Sarmad Hussain, Danish Mehmood, Anum Hayat, Syeda Um-i-Hani, Ambareen Hassan, Misha Kanwal, Sarah Jasmine John, Aisha Mehar, Madiha Shah and Lubna.

The sources said that the CAA had issued a show-cause notice – HQCAA/1076/067/FSAC/9773 – to the SAI which says that “where as you Shaheen Air International holder of an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) No—001/95-AL have been found in violation of Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) for the month of January 2013 (list attached). The issue was raised by the CAA with the SAI on Feb 20, 2013 and your reply -- letter No. SAI/009/FLT OPS – dated March 1, 2013 was found to be unsatisfactory.

“Where as due to above acts / omissions the provisions of Rule 201 and Rule 202 of Civil Aviation Rules, 1994 and Air Navigation Order No: 91.0012, Issue V dated April 7, 2011 have been violated and have provided sufficient grounds to the satisfaction of DG CAA for action in terms of CARs, 1994.

“Therefore, you M/s Shaheen Air International are hereby called upon to show cause as to why action should not be initiated under Rule 341 of CARs, 1994 for suspension of your AOC or under Rule 334 of CARs, 1994 for imposition of appropriate financial penalty on you, as the case may be.”

The sources said that CAA officials issued such letters just to save their skin in case of any disaster or future inquiries, on one hand, and to put pressure on the airlines, on the other, but after reaching an understanding with the airlines the fine, which is ridiculously low under the CAA laws, is imposed.

Responding to Dawn queries, Pakistan Airlines Cabin Crew Association chief Nasrullah Afridi said that flight duty time limitations were prescribed globally after scientific calculations keeping in mind that how long a person could function perfectly and after how much time the fatigue factor crept in and if the person concerned held a responsible position on board an aircraft, even a slight lapse due to overwork, fatigue etc could translate into a disaster.

He said such duty time restrictions were prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and had to be followed globally. He said that due to such factors in long-haul flights double sets of crew were employed so that one set of the crew worked for certain hours and then took rest and the other set of crew took over. He said airlines hired a smaller number of employees than required and forced them to work more hours than the limit prescribed by the CAA. He said that the airlines resorted to such illegal practices to cut costs and increase their profits, but actually they compromised air safety. The CAA, which is the aviation regulator, should also not take a lenient view of such illegal activities and should take stern actions against the airlines, as well as the crew, so that they refrained from committing the illegalities.

Despite repeated attempts, officials concerned of the SAI could not be approached to get their version on the issue.

The sources said that the airlines be made to inform the intending passengers that the crew of their flight had been/ would be working for more hours than prescribed by the law and would be stressed or fatigued, so that the passengers knew about the condition of the crew and took an informed decision that if they wanted to travel in an aircraft being handled with overworked, stressed and fatigued crew.

The sources said that this was not the solitary incident of FDTL law violation or compromising of air safety by the SAI as sometime back the CAA had caught SAI’s 25 pilots, including its controller of flight operations, Irfan Saleem Hashmi, for violating the FDTL. Other five law violating senior pilot instructors/ trainers were Alamgir Akhtar, Balban Sabir, Mohammad Aslam, Farooq Iqbal and Nizamuddin Jatoi. The rest of the 19 law-violating junior pilots, according to the CAA list, were: Adnan Sarwar, Naeem Maqbool, Haroon Rasheed Paul, Mohammad Ali, Javed Iqbal, Ikramuddin Khan, Ghazanfar Khadim, Farooq Khan, Zia Shahid, Mohammad Usman, Basir Saggu, Shadab Hanain, Ejaz Hanif, Ayub Sarwar, Nadeem Hanif, Mahmood Ahmed, Faisal Naseem Gul, Shuja Alam and Nisar Raja.