Delhi Police grills 34 pilots for using 'filthy' language against DGCA official on WhatsApp group

New Delhi: In an unusual development, the Delhi Police on Tuesday examined a group of pilots after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) filed a police complaint against some police for making obscene remarks against its top officials on a WhatsApp group. 

Based on the complaint, the police today examined at least 10 pilots of Jet Airways in connection with the case. However, there was no report of any arrest or detention of anyone. 

"DGCA has filed a complaint (against pilots) for making remarks against our officials on social media. It is for the police to take any action," Director General of Civil Aviation B S Bhullar said in a text message response. 

DGCA officer Lalit Gupta, who filed the complaint with the police against the pilots, told ANI, "At least 34 pilots belonging to various airlines used filthy language against me in their WhatsApp group."

Meanwhile, all the four airlines, with whom the pilots are associated, have issued an apology to the DGCA official over the matter. 

"Its up to the Delhi Police if they ant to take any action against those pilots for their misbehavior," the official further added. 

The complaint has been filed against the pilots belonging to a group on Whatsapp where the alleged 'obscene remarks' were made by a few pilots. 

"The text of the message was highly objectionable, unpardonable and obscene language was used against family members of DGCA officials," a senior DGCA official, on the condition of anonymity was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

The bad blood between pilots and the senior DGCA official happened when they addressed him wrongly in a mail. Following this, the DGCA had asked Jet Airways to check the mental "alertness" of 10 of its pilots and see if they are fit enough to be allowed to fly.

The 10 pilots had written to the regulator, opposing its proposed move to double the notice period of commanders to a year. But while doing so, the official the letter was addressed to carried his wrong designation. Instead of saying joint Director-General, it described him as "joint director, DGCA" which is several notches below his position.

The joint DG wrote back to the pilots, saying: "This shows your absent state of mind and not fit condition for flying as the alertness required to perform cockpit tasks appears to be missing. With absent mind, cockpit checks performed in a casual manner may create hazardous situation leading to compromise with safety of aircraft operations."​