Pilots' association urge Hardeep Puri to immediately replace Director General, DGCA

New Delhi [India], Aug 11 : The demand to immediately replace Arun Kumar, Director General of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been raised with Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday by two pilots' associations over his alleged comments on the recent plane crash in Kozhikode.
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association and Indian Pilots' Guild have written to Puri after the Director General, DGCA, in a televised interview stated that "the landing it seems was not appropriate" and "landing was not smooth" in respect to the incident which occured on August 7.
The association said that such statements by Kumar "reveal his total lack of technical knowledge and amateurish view of the unfortunate accident."
It further went on to allege that the official through his "irresponsible remarks" is "trying to sway public opinion, as well as the outcome of the investigation towards a direction that suits his office."
"We, therefore, as a body of professional aviators, have lost complete faith and confidence in Arun Kumar and thus, demand that he be replaced with immediate effect," the letter read.
An Air India Express flight carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur airport in Kozhikode on August 7.
Earlier, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that an inquiry has been ordered under the Aircraft Act, black boxes of flight IX-1344 have been recovered and added that the findings of this investigation will be made public.