(…….On the eve of the 25th day of May –this was end of an era, we received one SMS and after that “A total recall”…)
No one related to aviation industry will forget this magic numeral in the history of National carrier, neither of engineer nor Pilots.
Ever since May 2007, number 7(25=2+5=7) haunt us (All the cadre).
No one should forget the circular, a turning point, which withdrew the SOD ticket and it was valid only for the staff on flight duty. May be this was the first mistake where we could not understand and united to retaliate though later on it was withdrawn.
Many instances of withdrawal of our flights from lucrative sectors, like Bangkok, Kualalumpur, Doha, Bahraine and Colombo, keep on provoking employees but in the beginning everyone kept quite. Damage was being done systematically.
We were heading for the disaster. Till now 25000 employees of erstwhile IA were not happy since many months. Mentally they were not at peace. Occasional incidents of tired pilots, pilot sleeping in the cockpit and overshooting of runway did make the breaking news.
Electronic media to its own reason magnified minor snags of national carrier and made it breaking news where as big accidents of Private carrier were ignored to such an extent that it was projected as a minor incident. Print media too reported against us results in lower market share day by day.
Someone of vested interest was getting his plan through to his satisfaction. Air India routes were being given to other carrier, bilateral agreement (No country in the world has such a liberal bilateral agreement as we have today) was killing our airlines, AAI literally discriminating in allotting the bay (Remote bay) and in prioritising arrival and departure sequence to Air India. Nothing was in its favour and the worst of Air India yet to come as an Air India Express Air Plane crash at Manglore in the early morning of May 22nd, 2010 (2+2+2+1=7).
Bad days for Aircraft engineers were about to knock their doors. Series of incidents post accident happened. A plane from Banglore took off carrying the kin of crashed plane and landed Manglore with all the officials except Engineer. At Manglore no engineer was there to certify the aircraft and management somehow got the certification from Kingfisher engineer who was apparently not qualified to certify that aircraft. This was a violation of the CAR and GS of AIAEA reported that matter to the appropriate authority and spoke to media in a brief interview.
Management was upset for speaking to media and charge sheeted GS of AIAEA. Engineers went on flash strike against this gag order asking for revoking of this order. Soon, ACEU also joined the stir and 25000(2+5=7) employees of erstwhile IA (This was the figure quoted during the strike. The figure of employee keep changing on every reporting) joined in. GS of ACEU also charge sheeted. Later on both this union were de recognized by the management.
All the members of AIAEA unitedly and spontaneously reacted to Flash Strike; as a result Aircrafts were on ground for ours which were later on recovered by officers. Aircrafts flown back to the base and thereafter a disaster was waiting to follow Engineers. Many engineers were terminated and suspended, remaining was asked to proceed to the transit station for one year posting. All the facilities which were availed till now withdrawn. People within humiliated us saying it was not a right moment for strike. Outside we lost the public sympathy. Our family life shattered. Engineers who were terminated and suspended faced the real challenge of life. Unity has strength and we showed it first time ever. Soon we broke down by calling off the strike after the High Court order.
Humiliation does not end here, Pilot were accepted to do the PF(Though they are authorised only to do PF in case of diversion thereafter flown back to base where a higher inspection schedule is to be carried out by Engineers) and started giving the message to other employees that our contribution was not required. At one occasion one of the Captains flown to a station leaving flight engineer at ground.
After a lot of struggle beyond the boundary of airport, except few, many of us were taken back. Engineers are lying low with low level of confidence. Memory of the past still not faded away and it will take a longer period to recover.
Is not it seems that we are now haunted by number 7 or 25 or 2007? But still there is one hope----
----“Nothing last forever in this universe and so the troubles in one’s life too”. A change, a light in the darkness, all of us is waiting for a morning after a long dark night.
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