Senior Air India pilot shows up for flight with expired licence

Mumbai: Last week, Air India had come under fire from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) as it let a commander who held an expired pilot license operate a flight. Air India's general manager (flight operations), Capt N K Beri, evidently did not learn any lessons from the incident.
On Saturday, Capt Beri, also a Boeing 747 commander, flew as a passenger from Delhi to Kozhikode to operate AI's Kozhikode-Jeddah flight, only to realize on landing in Kerala that his pilot license had long expired and he had forgotten to renew it. The airline had to scamper for a replacement and the flight departed 15 hours behind schedule. AI GM Capt Beri's callousness added to the ailing airline's expenses as it had to provide food and accommodation to passengers as the Saturday evening flight AI 963 departed only on Sunday morning.
11/09/12 Manu V/Times of India