Pawan Hans pilots’ stir may hit ONGC workers

November 25: Workers at the ONGC off-shore oil rigs are at risk due to Pawan Hans pilots refusing to fly sorties at night. Evacuation durin...

November 25: Workers at the ONGC off-shore oil rigs are at risk due to Pawan Hans pilots refusing to fly sorties at night. Evacuation during medical emergency may take longer due to pilots’ agitation.

The pilots, on strike since early this month, alleged that the company’s pilots are rostered for night flying after a full day’s shift. “This violates flight safety as pilots are on duty for 24 hours at a stretch,” said a Pawan Hans Pilots’ Guild spokesman. The guild is engaged in an arbitration with the company. It decided not to fly at night after the management told the arbitrator that the pilots are allowed sufficient rest aboard the oil rigs. “Following this, we refused to undertake night flying,” a Guild member said.

Attempts by Pawan Hans to operate night flights off Bombay High with the help of pilots from Delhi were hastily abandoned as the Guild did not allow them to operate the flights.

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“We warned the three pilots from Delhi that they could be risking the lives of innocent persons as they did not have any experience of landing aboard oil rigs at night,” the Guild member said. These pilots subsequently returned to New Delhi.

Senior Pawan Hans officials however are hopeful of arriving at a settlement soon, adding that contingency measures have been planned to tackle the situation. Emergency operations will be carried out from Pawan Hans’ Juhu airbase, they said. Incidentally, the Juhu airbase does not have night-flying facilities and does not normally operate after sunset. The guild demanded that helicopters and crew be placed at Mumbai airport on stand-by in case of an emergency.

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