When you travel by any mode what would be your top priority, obviously to reach your destination safe and sound. If you are travelling by air, the least you can expect after you pay through your nose that the concerned Airlines would provide you with an air worthy plane. No one would like to end up like the poor, doomed passengers of Air France.

But it seems that passengers safety is last thing on the minds of Air India Bosses. They are only concerned about the heavy monetary loss and embarrassment and loss of face if one of their pilots refuses to fly a plane with a technical snag.

The pilot Capt. N.K.Beri refused to fly a plane Boeing 747-400 after it developed a problem in its landing gear after it took off. He informed the ATC about it Since it was a Calicut Riyadh Mumbai flight he returned back to Riyadh.

Strangely he was asked by the Air India to fly the plane with the faulty landing gear to Mumbai which this gutsy pilot refused now he has been punished and declared not available for flying duties by Air India and they have also stopped his salary because they say his action had incurred monetary loss. Perhaps they want to recover the amount from his unpaid salary.

Capt.Beri quite rightly did not want to risk the life of 300 passengers on board and if he had flown with the snag, the performance of the aircraft would have been severely compromised, it could not go to higher altitudes, fuel consumption would have increased manifold and speed would be greatly reduced and above all in case of harsh weather conditions the safety of the plane would be in great peril.

But Air India instead of appreciating and rewarding his action is concerned about the delay of 24 hours, monetary loss and loss of face that is why it has decided to punish him. And as a reward handed him a “Show-Cause” notice

It seems no one from Air India’s top bosses or their near and dear ones were in that plane, otherwise it would have been a different story altogether.