NEW DELHI: An Air India flight from Bengaluru to Delhi was delayed on Friday morning after the pilot collapsed just before take-off.
The airline arranged for an alternate pilot and the flight finally took off 90 minutes later. The incident follows recent concerns raised by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which pulled up the airline for the pilot roster system.
Flight AI2414 was supposed to take-off by 3 am on July 4 from Terminal 2 of the Kempgowda International Airport. However, a pilot was reported to have fallen seriously ill inside the cockpit just before departure. The flight took off at 4:36 am, 90 minutes behind schedule, according to a flight tracking website. It landed in Delhi at 7:30 am.
Confirming the incident, the Air India said in a statement, “There was a medical emergency involving one of our pilots in the early hours of July 4. As a result, the pilot was unable to operate the flight AI2414 from Bengaluru to Delhi, that he was rostered for, and was taken to a local hospital immediately. He is stable but continues to be under the supervision of doctors at the same hospital.”
A similar incident was reported in August 2023, when an IndiGo pilot collapsed at Nagpur Airport and later died.