How a whistleblower pilot brought down an entire airline for safety violations!

 

Hello Ladies and Gentleman!

This week we are going to take a look at Mr. Gaurav Taneja, who is an ex-pilot and a Youtuber who was also in the news, as he did something that no other employee could do it easily to their employer.

Gaurav Taneja was born on July 9, 1986, in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his graduation in 2008 from IIT Kharagpur and then he became a certified nutritionist, a professional bodybuilder, and a pilot. He has a total of 2 Youtube channels, flying beast and fit muscle tv, in which he speaks about his travel and physical fitness.

On June 5th, 2020, when he was working as a pilot for AirAsia India, Gaurav wrote a complaint to DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), stating that the airline did not follow the safety precautions while landing. The airline insisted that all the pilots follow flap 3 landings at least 98% of the time because that would save fuel for the airline (8kgs of fuel per landing). But, what we don't know is that flap 3 landings are dangerous, especially when the runway is short and during tailwinds. In this case, a full flap landing is suggested as it is much safer but also consumes more fuel.

The airline fired Taneja on June 26 stating inefficiency and other reasons as he pointed out the safety issue. Soon after this, he took this matter to his Youtube channel flying beast where he posted a 27-minute video explaining how the airline violated safety norms, to cut costs.

After his video went viral along with his tweets on twitter, people started voicing out for him and soon DGCA began to probe on this matter with AirAsia India. On August 10th, 2020, DGCA suspended Capt Manish Uppal (Head of Operations) and Capt Mukesh Neema (Head of air safety) for a period of 3 months on the account of safety violations.

The most important takeaway from Mr. Taneja is that no matter what, it is most important to be ethical and justice will find its way. Many of the pilots who had these issues did not voice over which leads to several airplane accidents killing 100's of people.

Efficiency doesn't only mean cost savings but also following safety protocols.

Adios, Amigo!

- Varadharaju R

Safety comes first..

 

During the unprecedented time because of the pandemic, many companies are not aware of the measures that needs to be taken in order to ensure the safety of their employees which ranges from providing personnel protection equipment, maintaining physical distance etc.

With the rapid spreading of Covid-19 and employees coming to work, many precautionary measures have been taken that has been considered as the new normal i.e checking temperature of each employee, practicing social distancing, monitoring occupancy levels, cleaning work stations. Along with this , the shifts of employees have also been adjusted in order to prevent too many people in the shop floor.

People have been looking into technology as well, for example, wristbands that vibrate to ensure social distancing, but at the same time, they are not that reliable also.

Monitoring occupancy levels:

Due to the rapid spread of Covid-19, a company called SICK has come up with a people counter sensor app using 3D sensors in order to ensure the occupancy level at workplaces are at the recommended levels.  This sensor does ensure privacy concerns are respected at the same time provide health and safety recommendations. This will help to effectively utilise space and maintain the required occupancy levels.

Maintaining physical distance:

SICK also has a method for reliable detection of people to ensure physical distance. It is with the help of LiDAR and trace and track technology from SICK, they could ensure the safety of everyone within the workplace. This helped to practise social distancing at the same time operating efficiently. This technology helped to create virtual walls  to form three-sided box around a workstation, this will be indicated by markings on the floor.

Tracking throughout the facility:

RFID tags are placed on the employees clothing or hat which will help to track where the worker is travelling. This data is later processed by the manufacturer. The tracker will help to identify and track everywhere any person went in the facility, what all they were in contact with and conduct effective contact tracing.