The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended for five years the privileges of licences of both pilots on board Jet Airways' London-Mumbai flight who left the cockpit unattended on January 1. The development comes weeks after the Indian carrier sacked both the pilots, who were earlier suspended for being involved in a brawl inside the cockpit during a London-Mumbai flight and leaving the controls unmanned. The airplane had 324 passengers including two infants apart from 14 crew members on board. A Jet Airways spokesperson had said: “Consequent to the review of the events on board Flight 9W 119 London-Mumbai of 01 January, 2018, Jet Airways has terminated services of both the cockpit crew with immediate effect." Subsequently, the DGCA had immediately commenced a probe into the incident and suspended the flying licence of the co-pilot, who allegedly slapped the flight commander, a woman, during the flight. The commander reportedly left the cockpit in tears. Upon several unsuccessful attempts by the co-pilot to call the captain back into the cockpit, the former, too, allegedly left the flight controls on the Boeing 777 widebody aircraft.
