Gaurav Taneja is a commercial airline pilot, a fitness expert, a popular YouTuber and a daily vlogger. Taneja has a large presence on social media. His YouTube channel Flying Beast has over 2.92 million subscribers, and his Twitter and Instagram accounts have over 225,000 and 967,000 followers, respectively.

Taneja has claimed that the airline has suspended him for “standing up for safe operations of an aircraft and its passengers”. Earlier he has alleged that the airline was violating safety procedures that were aimed to contain spread of coronavirus. This could endanger the lives of hundreds of AirAsia airlines passengers.

Gaurav on violations

On June 14, Taneja, tweeted that he has been suspended by AirAsia India. The reason given by him was for standing up for safe operations of an aircraft and its passengers. Taneja alleged the airline has asked its pilots to do 98 per cent of landings in “Flap 3” mode, which allows it to save fuel. He said if a pilot does not do 98 per cent of landings in “Flap 3” mode, the airline considers it a violation of its standard operating procedure.

The flaps are required to create drag for the plane while landing. But when landing it in Flap 3 mode will lead to very steep and unsafe unlanding.

Gaurav Taneja’s video on suspension

Gaurav posted a detailed video on his popular YouTube channel, called Flying Beast, titled “Reasons behind suspension from my pilot job”. In this video is told everything about his suspenison. Taneja gave the example of Imphal airport, where the plane descends more steeply as compared to other airports when approaching for landing. In this case the pilot is required to do a “Full Flap” landing.

“In order to achieve targets, what would people do? They will do Flap 3 landings without giving consideration whether it is safe or unsafe. This directly impacts the passenger safety,” he said in his YouTube video. If something happens during a Flap 3 landing, then the question would be asked the pilot if he or she cares more about saving fuel or 180 passengers’ lives, Taneja said.

DCGA on AirAsia India

“DCGA has taken note of the concerns raised by some stakeholders against a particular airline and its approach to safety,”tweeted DCGA. It further said that, “DGCA has already started an investigation into the issues flagged and shall take appropriate action based on the outcome of the said investigation.”

Statement of AirAsia India spokesperson

According to AirAsia India spokesperson, “AirAsia India stands firmly on its value of ‘Safety Always’. The safety of our guests is of paramount importance in every aspect of our operations. AirAsia India is cognizant of the matter in regard to a social media post put up by one of its employees.”

“We are cooperating with the DGCA on this matter. As a policy, AirAsia India does not comment on matters pertaining to its business or employees,” the spokesperson added.

Official also said Taneja was suspended on disciplinary grounds for reporting sick frequently and has nothing to do with him flagging the safety lapses. “There are some disciplinary issues due to which he has been suspended. This issue is being dealt with internally,” he said.

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