Delhi HC grants anticipatory bail to Air India Pilot who allegedly evaded pre-flight breath analyser test

The Delhi High Court today granted anticipatory bail to Captain Arvind Kathpalia, an Air India pilot who allegedly evaded the mandatory pre-flight breath analyser test for a flight in January 2017..Captain Kathpalia was pulled up for failing to take the test before a Delhi to Bangalore flight. It is alleged that he also skipped the test while piloting the aircraft back to Delhi..Anticipatory bail was granted by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta..Kathpalia, a senior pilot and former Director (Operations) with Air India, is facing prosecution under Sections 201, 204, 465, 471, 506, 202, 217, 279, 280 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 11 of the Aircraft Act, 1934, after a complaint was filed by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association..Section 11 of the Aircraft Act deals with the penalty for flying any aircraft in such a manner as to cause danger to any person or to any property on land, water, or in the air..After a departmental inquiry, Kathpalia’s license was suspended for three months by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)..The anticipatory bail application filed in the High Court through Advocate Abhimanyu Kampani claimed that the complainant association was “being vindictive” against Kathpalia by “putting undue pressure on the police to arrest and humiliate him”..He had also argued that merely because he missed the test, it could not be presumed that he was intoxicated..He had approached the High Court after his anticipatory bail application was rejected by Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora..Kathpalia was represented in the Delhi High Court by Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta..Additional Public Prosecutor Rajni Gupta appeared for the state, while Advocate Adit S Pujari appeared for the Indian Commercial Pilots Association..As per reports, Kathpalia was also found “too drunk to fly” before piloting flight AI 111 to London from Delhi in November 2018. In the mandatory pre-flight breathalyser test, Kathpalia’s Blood Alcohol Content was recorded at 0.07 per cent. Indian laws enforce a zero-tolerance policy in this regard, and a BAC reading of as low as 0.01 per cent makes a pilot legally unfit to fly. Therefore, a 12-hour “dry” period between a pilot’s last drink and his stepping into the cockpit is mandated..Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.