KARACHI: In what appears to be a serious air safety hazard, 26 crew members — pilots and cabin crew — of the Shaheen Air International (SAI) have violated the Civil Aviation Authority’s flight duty time limitation (FDTL) by flying more than 100 hours during February 2014, it emerged here on Thursday.

Official documents of the flight information management system of the SAI showed that four pilots/first officers and 22 air hostesses and stewards had been flying for more than 100 hours during February.

Despite repeated attempts, SAI deputy managing director Faisal Rafiq could not be reached for the official version.

Sources said it was the responsibility of the CAA to ensure that airlines followed rules and regulations, but it was rarely done.

The CAA rules and regulations prescribed penalties for FDTL violations, which include not only the suspension/cancellation of crew members’ licences but also the licence of the airline concerned could also be suspended/cancelled if such violations continued.

SAI air hostess Sana Hassan topped the list of some ‘hard-working’ crew members who violated the prescribed CAA flight duty ceiling. She had flown for 112 hours and 40 minutes followed by pilot officer Masud Aslam, who had flown 112 hours and 10 minutes in one month.

The sources said that First Officer Sajjad Raza (104.20 hours), Captain Fawad Shahab (103 hours) and Captain Asad Shirazi (102.22 hours) were three SAI pilots who had also flown over 100 hours in February.

Twenty-one cabin crew members who had violated the FDTL are lead cabin crew members Aansa Yasmin (106.12 hours), Safia Malik (107.55 hours), Sumaira Munawar (107.08 hours), Rabia Mahar (105.52 hours), Tina Shahzad (104.11 hours), Zamrina Khan (110.25 hours), Ayesha Riaz (101.39 hours), Shazia Akhtar (105.27 hours), Reema (100.05 hours), Mehreen Khan (103.20 hours). Cabin crew members Danial Asif (103 hours), Imran Ali Javaid (106 hours), Mohammad Nauman (102.47 hours), Shah Taj Shoukat (101.55 hours), Sana Parveen Gill (105.17 hours), Hina Arif (101 hours), Hira Pervaiz (104.39 hours), Kaneez Bibi (103.50 hours), Maria Lawrnce (105.50 hours), Reene Koreena Manzoor (105.18 hours) and Zainab Altaf (103.43 hours) also violated the FDTL.

Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (Palpa) president Amir Hashmi said that the FDTL prescribed by the CAA was for 100 hours in 30 days and these limits were fixed so that crew members were not overworked and remained fresh during the flight duty.

He said that the FDTL should be strictly followed and not be compromised at any cost.

He said as the duty timings of flight crew kept on changing as they could be flying during the morning, afternoon, evening, night, etc, so these limitations were fixed to give sufficient rest to the crew members.

He said the 100-hour FDTL was fixed by the CAA while the airlines should fix even fewer hours as the PIA had fixed 90 hours in 30 days.

Pakistan Airline Cabin Crew Association president Nasarullah Afridi said that the limitations were fixed after research and keeping in view the physical and psychological stress that the flight crew faced as their duty timings kept on changing on a day-to-day basis.

He said these limitations were fixed so that the crew members remained properly rested and alert during the flight duties, which was very important for air safety.

The sources said that the CAA rarely kept an eye on the airlines, as there was no permanent director for the flight standards directorate for the past many months.

They said that the departmental staffers —flight inspectors — also took a lenient view of the violations compromising air safety in the process.

They said that during January 2014 at least 45 SAI crew members —nine pilots and first officers and 36 air hostesses and stewards — had violated the FDTL but no action was taken by the CAA.

CAA spokesperson Abid Kaimkhani had told Dawn that he would look into the FDTL violation in January as highlighted by the media but so far no action had been taken.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2014