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Every person buying a flight ticket to fly to their destination believes that if they are paying a hefty amount, they are at least safe in the hands of the pilot. They rely on the airlines to ensure their safe landing; in terms of their aircraft and the kind of protocols they follow.

It looks like Air Asia India has not been following the same.

Popular Indian YouTuber and pilot, Gaurav Taneja, who is popularly known as Flying Beast among his fans has sparked a controversy exposing Air Asia and the shoddy practices their management has been leveraging.

In a video titled “Reason Behind Suspension from My Pilot Job” that he uploaded to his official YouTube channel on June 15, Taneja manages to highlight all the points that he has questioned the Air Asia authorities about and not received any reply from them.

He explains in details the chain of events that resulted in the suspension and why it is time that someone stands up against a corrupted system to ensure safety of the passengers.

Prior to him sharing the video on his YouTube channel with over 2.99 million subscribers, Taneja posted about his suspension on his twitter handle, letting his followers know about the situation. He clarified the reason of suspension for standing up for safe operations of the aircraft, employees and the passengers.

Today I have been officially suspended from @AirAsiaIndian for standing up for safe operations of an aircraft and its passengers.@AwakenIndia#SabkeLiye

— Taneja Taneja (@flyingbeast320) June 14, 2020

Taneja highlighted three factors that he stood up for during his service with Air Asia, citing them under three distinct pointers in his first YouTube video addressing the situation.

• Unethical sick leave policy
• Lack of safety with Covid-19 guidelines
• Flap 3 vs. Flap-full

Unethical sick leave policy

In the first video that we have mentioned above, Taneja clearly mentioned about the lack of ethics when it comes to the sick leave policy in the company.

He revealed that the management made pilots work under ill-health and not in their 100%, putting the lives of both the passengers and the pilot at risk.

Pilots need to be completely fit and alert, according to Taneja but he said that the company made them work even when they had a rough night and were not fit enough to fly a plane the next day.

“We (pilots) cannot operate if we are less than 100 percent and this is the regulation, and if you are not 100 percent and still flying, then its comparable to murder as you are putting the lives of 180-odd passengers on the line,” said Taneja in the video.

Even with the allotted sick leaves for the pilots, Taneja reported that the company didn’t sanction them the leaves. If they did take a leave, they were asked to compensate for that during the week-offs.

He further emphasised how he took the grievances and the complaints to the higher authorities, only to experience hostility from the management.

Lack of safety during Covid-19

The second problem that Taneja highlighted in the video was the lack of abidance to the safety protocols issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Government of India in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“AirAsia did not follow the ‘COVID-19’ safety precautionary measures,” said Taneja.

“The airline has money and resources but failed to provide even the smallest things to ensure passengers and airline staff safety. The ‘chalta hai’ attitude in India is a huge problem in the Airline industry,” Taneja further added.

He kept saying how the company as massive as Air Asia failed to look into some of the smallest issues that could put the life of the passengers and the pilots at risk.

When he started pointing out the red flags time and time, the airlines wanted to dub and suppress his voice, labelling him as a liability for not doing his job correctly and pointing things out.

Flap 3 vs. Flap full

In case you don’t necessarily follow aviation or the technicalities, it is likely you wouldn’t understand what these term mean.

In simpler words, they are terms used for explaining landing module. The Flap 3 landing is more “fuel efficient” for the airlines, saving around 8 kg of fuel while the Flap full landing burns more fuel.

Taneja mentioned that the company accused him of flying 71% Flat 3 landings, which should have been 98% instead. Not being able to meet the targets adds to the demerits to the pilot’s profile.

He further went on to explain the reasons behind such landings too, stating that he did that to ensure the safety of the passengers that he was responsible for.

Following the growing popularity of the first video, which garnered over 4 million views within a matter of 4 days, Taneja uploaded another video titled “Why is Air Asia Silent”, where he explained the current situation following his suspension.

He clarified saying that the high authority officers that he had sent the notices against are still at work and have not been suspended, much like him.

Taneja further reiterated the kind of stress that he is under for being the sole person standing against such a massive airline. But he has time and time tweeted that there is no point being afraid of something if you haven’t done anything wrong.

“If you know you are standing for the right thing, and you have nothing to hide, you become fearless. Never fight a fearless person, he is very dangerous !!” tweeted Taneja.

If you know you are standing for the right thing, and you have nothing to hide, you become fearless.
Never fight a fearless person, he is very dangerous !!#SabKeLiye

— Gaurav Taneja (@flyingbeast320) June 19, 2020

By Somapika Dutta