NEW DELHI, June 30 (Xinhua) -- India's civil aviation regulator on Friday issued a warning to the pilots of private airline companies not to allow unauthorized people into the cockpit.
The warning came in the aftermath of several incidents reported recently where pilots allowed their "friends" into the cockpit.
In an advisory, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that any unauthorized entry will be dealt with strictly, and may also invite stringent enforcement action.
The latest advisory came after two recent incidents of unauthorized entry of passengers into the aircraft cockpit of Air India flights.
In the first instance on Feb. 27, the pilot of the Delhi-Dubai flight was suspended for three months after he let his "lady friend" enter the flight cockpit and allowed her to stay there till the flight landed.
In this case, Air India was fined 3 million Indian rupees (36,585 U.S. dollars) for not taking the initial complaint by its alert cabin crew seriously.
In the second case, the pilot-in-command of a domestic flight on June 3 was suspended for a year, and his co-pilot's license was suspended for a month for a similar violation. ■
