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SriLankan airline official delisted by Civil Aviation Department The delisting of Captain M.A.L. Ratnayake, Senior Manager Flight Operations, came over a controversy arising from the upgrading of a Filipino First Officer as a Pilot for Airbus A-340 flights. The Pilots Guild of SriLankan Airlines raised protests over the move on the grounds that proper procedures had not been followed and there was discrimination against Sri Lankan nationals who were pilots. Captain Ratnayake was nominated by SriLankan Airlines to be responsible to the Director of Civil Aviation for flight operations activities. Such activities are stipulated in the Operations Specifications of the Air Operations Certificate issued to SriLankan Airlines. The other two "Designated Personnel" are Peter Hill, Chief Executive Officer and Captain R.W. Hutton, Chief Technical Officer. In a letter to Captain Ratnayake, Mr. Nimalasiri has said "It has always been the policy and practice of this office to heed more to requests and recommendations of a Flight Operations Management of an airline certified by this office before individual requests / complaints of pilots employed by the airline are considered against management decisions." He has added that this is "on the premise that it is the airline which is ultimately responsible to this office for safe operation of flights." However, Mr. Nimalasiri has said that the upgrading of the Filipino pilot has "shattered severely the aforesaid understanding and the mutual trust this office has had with the flight operations management of SriLankan Airlines for so long." He has also said that the Department of Civil Aviation now has information and written evidence that information provided by the Senior Manager Flight Operations was contradictory. It had caused the Department serious embarrassment, Mr. Nimalasiri has added. |
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