As reported by The Times Of India, a Chennai-Delhi Air India flight was delayed “after pilot and aircraft engineer had a difference of opinion which ended up in a fight inside the cockpit on Saturday. The aircraft engineer was injured and was admitted to a private hospital while the pilot Captain Manik Lal has been grounded till investigations are completed.”

Pilot Fights In Cockpit – Causes 2 Hour Delay

The flight had arrived from Mumbai and was scheduled to take off to Delhi at 9.45am enroute to Paris. Apparently, the cleaning crew was working to clean the plane, including the cockpit when the pilot came in and asked them to leave. The engineer reportedly told the pilot that the plane had not yet been turned over to the crew and a fight ensued.

This debacle caused a 2+ hour delay for passengers and the flight eventually took off around 11:45.

Bottom Line

A lot of attention comes to passengers behaving badly on flights; most of us don’t expect the pilot to be assaulting people in the cockpit. This looks to be a case of miscommunication between pilot and engineer/cleaning crew that could have been prevented. Unfortunately, the losers in this case are the passengers who had to wait 2+ hours for the delay.