There has been growing concern in India over reports of young people dying on account of heart failures post the 2020 pandemic, unrelated to genetic or any other clearly discernible causes. The pilot in Air India Express instance could well be one of these. It remains a matter that needs deeper research.

The bigger worry for the aviation sector is that the cause for this and for previous deaths in the pilot community could be chalked up to ‘cumulative fatigue’, a sort of insidious burnout over a sustained period of time that results in loss of life.

Well before the pandemic, in 2018, I had detailed conversations with some pilots of low-fare airlines to understand what their daily work entailed and found the picture was pretty grim. Pilots were struggling with burnout and monotony as airlines tried to cope with growing demands without adding to their payroll headcounts. A low-fare airline commander and crew’s life in India was certainly not one to be envied.

Over the years, things have worsened as the aviation sector has grown and pressure to improve bottom lines and stay afloat have mounted. Pilots and commanders of the erstwhile Air India, Indian Airlines, and Jet Airways led a life of relative leisure compared to those who entered the industry post-2004.

Earning less is one aspect, but the nature of the jobs takes a bigger physical toll too. Many low-fare airline pilots and crew do four take-offs and landings in a single duty assignment, and this can be tough on the body over a long period. “We as passengers find it tough and quite tiring if one takes a flight with a couple of stopovers even without a change in aircraft. You can imagine what the crew goes through if they have to do three or four sectors in a single day,” argued a former civil aviation secretary.

In 2015, a GermanWings co-pilot deliberately crashed a jet, killing everyone on board. This opened a can of worms where the mental health of the crew became a key concern the world over. While the industry was equipped to assess the physical well-being of those in charge of so many lives at a time, assessing mental fitness was trickier and a bigger worry. The GermanWings incident blew apart the assumption that everyone values their own life.

The pandemic worsened matters. The aviation sector — commanders, co-pilots and cabin crew — faced layoffs or sharp pay cuts as airlines struggled to keep their heads above the water. Many flight personnel in India contracted and lost their lives to the virus while others suffered the stress of financial setbacks because of thin airline incomes.

As things limped back to normalcy, some of the financial stress lifted in 2022 and 2023. Yet in some ways, the work-life balance, especially for a low-fare airline pilot, has deteriorated. In 2022 and 2023, the news of two Indian pilots — one with IndiGo and one former SpiceJet commander who was with Qatar — dying while on duty made headlines. Several news reports identified poor health due to overwork, accumulated fatigue, and stress that is assumed to be common in the sector as reasons behind the untimely deaths.

After the pandemic, for the first time, commanders also came out and spoke openly. A senior SpiceJet commander told this writer that he had chosen to stay with his airline, despite its financial and other troubles, because it was flying less and, therefore, his work-life balance was better. He said at 51 years of age, he could no longer manage what he could when he was 28. Others pointed towards their gruelling rosters, which in one glaring instance included four early morning and six ‘window of circadian low’ (WOCL) flights (between 2 am and 6 am), a time when the mind and body are at their lowest functioning capacity.

The director general of civil aviation (DGCA) came up with new duty guidelines in October 2023 aimed at making the life of crew easier, with adequate and enhanced rest periods. For the airlines, this meant a spike in costs as they would need additional crew, and the matter expectedly landed up in court.

Based on a court directive, some of the new guidelines will be implemented in July, but the majority or the more substantive portions of the guidelines have been delayed to October. The pilot community, despite the court’s intervention, is not convinced these will be implemented. The situation in India, airline executives say, is already at alarming levels with many pilots being declared unfit, some of whom have been temporarily or even permanently removed from duty. Whether this was a result of overwork, stress, a general neglect of their physical state or a combination of all three remains unclear. Regardless, a two-year delay in the implementation of the guidelines is both incomprehensible and unconscionable.

Anjuli Bhargava writes about governance, infrastructure and the social sector. The views expressed are personal