A LCC Airline, A Whistleblower, and Alleged practices brought into light

Whistleblower's Safety

By law in India, whistleblowers are protected by the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014, which essentially provides for the protection of their identity. This includes norms to prevent victimization. For instance, an organization can't execute proceedings against a whistleblower pending a probe into allegations. This brings into serious questions just what right the airline had into carrying the suspension, well before India's aviation authority DGCA began their probe.

Health

Capt. Taneja spoke of an environment that discouraged pilots from taking a sick leave despite being unwell. Being a pilot isn't just about flying; the responsibility of passenger and crew lives are placed on their shoulders, needing physical and mental fitness. At this point in time, all are aware of the COVID-19 pandemic and its danger. An airline that doesn't allow and penalizes leave is in extreme violation of the health and safety norms in this case.

Save Lives or Money?

The most serious issue raised was the aspect that the airlines mandated using Flap Setting 3, instead of the full Flap 4 configuration for landing to save fuel. Flaps are to help the aircraft fly at lower speeds. Lesser flaps would mean faster speeds required. This can be disastrous in areas that have steep descents, shorter runways, or both, where the aircraft requires full flaps configuration and maintenance of lowest practical speed. In the fresh wake of disasters like the crash of Pakistan International Airlines flight 8303 (for which preliminary findings found apparent pilot error and an unstabilized approach), and Air India Express flight 812 (which was also pilot error due to an unstabilized approach), Air Asia's authorities would do well to amend their protocols to prevent an avoidable accident from happening.