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SriLankan
Pilots playing safe
The Guild President, Sunil Wettimuny, was responding to the front page report in last week's The Sunday Times. The report which said CID investigators were probing reports of sabotage at BIA added that the "Pilots Guild is learnt to have alleged that most of them were acts of sabotage." Mr. Wettimuny said, "We deny we have officially made such an allegation. The Sunday Times report did not specifically refer to an official complaint. However, the report alluded to representations made by several members of the Guild both to the management and to Milinda Ratnayake, Flight Operations Manager. In fact the report said that Mr Ratnayake did raise the issue with the SriLankan Airlines management. He was concerned about the serious problems arising out of this situation to all pilots flying SriLankan Airline's aircraft. Ironically, Airline sources have asked why the Pilots' Guild is not taking up such a serious matter with the management of the Airline. As reported in The Sunday Times last week, a CID probe into complaints of sabotage is still under way. This is whilst the Air Force has tightened security there. This came in the backdrop of SriLankan Airlines management terminating the services of 16 technical officers. A spokesman for the trade union representing them said yesterday that the dismissal of 16 members, both in March and April this year, was due to reported "technical errors" detected in aircraft engines. He said their union had sought clarification from the Pilots' Guild whether they made official representations, an issue that would have sparked off a row between the two bodies. "We were assured that no official representations were made though pilots had informally raised the issue," the spokesman added. Asked for his comments, Milinda Ratnayake told The Sunday Times "This is an internal matter. The Pilots' Guild has made their position clear and I do not want to comment on the matter any more." |
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