Air India said on Wednesday that is has taken adequate measures to protect the health and safety of its crew. The statement was in response to criticism from pilots’ unions that complained of poor precautionary steps taken by the airline when operating special flights to repatriate foreign citizens stranded in the country.
“All possible measures have been taken towards their health and safety as the safety of our Air Crew is paramount to us at Air India. Best available Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are procured for our crew including masks, gloves, apron, hazmat suits, sanitisers. Aircraft are fumigated and disinfected as per Ministry and Manufacturers SOP,” said the statement.
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On March 30, two pilots’ unions had written to the Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri complaining about “flimsy protective gear, inadequate sanitisers, shoddy disinfection procedure” as well as poor quarantine and medical facilities.
The airline also said that its doctors were available for its crew and employees and that it was in touch with safety regulator DGCA and hospitals to ensure they were updated with the latest protocols to be followed to curb the spread of coronavirus among the staff on front line duty. It said that it was following guidelines for quarantine prescribed by the government.
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