Air India starts online yoga for stressed crew members; pilots say address real issues

NEW DELHI: Air India has begun conducting “online yoga” classes for its crew members, including pilots who have been under severe psychological stress post the June 12 Ahmedabad crash. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had soon after that accident directed major Indian carriers to hold post trauma mental health workshop for their flight crew. AI had reported a “minor increase” in sick leaves by pilots after AI 171 crash, with 112 reporting sick on June 16.

In a recent mail to crew members, AI’s safety head Captain Henry Donohoe said: “(AI’s wellness app) offers a comprehensive suite of physical and emotional well-being support programmes. These include professional counselling sessions, online yoga classes, guided care circles and reflection sessions. In addition, we encourage you to explore self-care app which provides a wide range of mental health resources, including personalised plans and sessions tailored to individual needs.”

While the same may be aimed at improving crew members’ mental wellbeing, many AI pilots say the airline needs to take “concrete steps if it is indeed serious” about the same. “First of all, AI should revert to printed rosters being emailed to crew members as that allowed them to plan their lives. Now rostering (who will operate which flight when) is on an app which changes constantly. We can’t plan our life as we are constantly at the beck and call of the airline. This should immediately change,” said multiple pilots.

With rosters on the app, crew members say they have no way to prove that the app earlier had a different flight marked for them which has now been changed. Refusing to operate as per the constantly being updated app-based rostering has consequences.

This despite the fact that DGCA after the Ahmedabad crash had directed major airlines “not to push” crew to come to work if they are not feeling upto it to operate a flight. The reason: Mental health affects physical health, which in turn affects the ability to operate flights safely. In fact, a majority of DGCA notices to AI have been regarding crew scheduling by the airline.

AI pilots want weekly off to be given once a week instead of being given after 168 hours or on the eighth day. “There is no emotional quotient in AI as of now. Everything is app and mail-based. Even for online yoga, there’s an app. The stress level is very high in the airline and there’s no real support at this difficult time,” said pilots.

“AI has been putting crew members on standby duty whenever it wants, thereby inducing more stress among pilots even though there are required number of standby crew when the flight programme is published. Then there are continuing pay issues with the fix pay being reduced to 40 hours from 70 earlier by only one of them. Our weekly offs are not printed on the rosters. As it is this was causing both mental and financial stress among pilots. The crash has made things even worse,” they said.