AI pilot-crew spat delays Mamata's flight

NEW DELHI: Air India's troubles with its pilots and crew seem to have become a regular affair — on Friday night, railway minister Mamata Banerjee was delayed by 3 hours at the Kolkata airport after a scuffle between the two.
She was accompanied by TMC colleague and MoS health, Dinesh Trivedi — both heading for Delhi to attend the PM's UPA-2 dinner slated for Saturday.
"The delay was caused because of a scuffle between the pilot of AI-101 and its commercial crew, following which the pilot walked out," Trivedi told TOI. Trivedi, who along with Mamata, already seated in the plane, went down to inquire about the delay and came upon the pilot and the crew having an altercation following which the pilot walked away.
However, after efforts by Mamata and Trivedi, Captain Kejriwal who flew in from Hyderabad, agreed to fly AI-101 to Delhi. The flight, scheduled for 8pm, took off at 11pm.
"Air India is a national brand with the best engineers and pilots but I was told in my talks with its employees, right from pilots to loaders, that it is the arrogance and the dirty politics played by Arvind Jadhav (head of AI) that has created this mess," Trivedi said.