The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)  on Friday issued an advisory asking airlines to strictly follow rules as well as sensitise pilots and cabin crew to prevent incidents of unauthorised entry of people into the cockpit. The move comes against the backdrop of two back to back cases of Air India pilots-in-command inviting friends over to the flight deck.

In an advisory, DGCA has asked the heads of operations of all scheduled airlines to “prevent any unauthorised entry in the cockpit through appropriate means”. Any non-compliance with the applicable regulation, dealing with unauthorised cockpit entry, shall be dealt with strictly and may also invite stringent enforcement action, it said.

The advisory clearly specifies the authorised persons who can enter an aircraft cockpit and occupy the jump seat. Any unauthorised entry will be dealt with strictly and may also invite stringent enforcement action it said.

“As per the Aeronautical Information Circular (AIC) 17 of 2019, it includes only the crew members, an officer of the Civil Aviation Department, an officer of the India Meteorological Department, an officer of the Ministry of Civil Aviation of the rank of Joint Secretary and above, an employee of the aircraft operator, officials of the airline, any flight crew member of the aircraft operator or a duly authorized representative of the manufacturer of the aircraft.,” stated the advisory.

Also, all the authorised persons are required to comply with the mandatory pre-flight and post-flight breath analyser test requirement. The DGCA, in its advisory, further asked all airlines to sensitise their flight crew to strictly comply with the rules.

This latest advisory, that reminds airlines of the existing rules, comes after two recent incidents of ‘unauthorised entry’ of passengers into the aircraft cockpit of the Air India flight.

In the first instance from February 27, the pilot of the Delhi-Dubai flight was suspended for three months after he let a lady friend enter the flight cockpit and stay there till the flight landed. In this case, Air India also was fined ₹30 lakh for not taking the initial complaint by its alert cabin crew seriously.

In the latest instance from a Chandigarh-Leh flight on June 3 the pilot-in-command has been suspended for a year, and his co-pilot’s license has been suspended for a month for “not being assertive in preventing and non-reporting of the violation.”