Airline Pilots Accuse Air Malta Of Fabricating Lies Following Recent Reports On Crew Sickness
The Airline Pilots Association have responded to recent reports which indicate that there has been an increase in the number of pilots allegedly reporting sick, by stating that these allegations are false and a cover-up.
Last week, Air Malta reported that a delayed flight was a result of “unexpected” scheduling challenges including 13 pilots that had called in sick on a single day.
The airline company went on to say that “these unprecedented sick leave figures are clearly not in line with industry norms,” and also criticised the behaviour “some members of the pilot community” as a result.
Now, ALPA responded to these claims with a strongly-worded press release stating that such allegations “had already been made by Air Malta’s management in the past as a cover-up intended to mask the actual state of affairs and the gross mismanagement at the higher tiers of the company.”
The union went on to criticise Air Malta’s management, stating that it has reached “unprecedented levels of incompetence” following a series of disputes between the two bodies in regards to crew sickness.
They also made reference to a similar situation back in September 2018 where they claimed that Air Malta fabricated statistics on regarding a “1000% increase in crew sickness”.
The union claims this had not been corroborated by any form of evidence and was “solely intended as a cover-up for the incompetence of the select few who were appointed to steer our national airline into the path of self-destruction.”
ALPA was quick to jump to the defence of pilots in light of the recent allegations made by Air Malta and believe this to be another incident in which the airline is fabricating lies.
“Notwithstanding, the airline’s management seems intent on fabricating yet another set of lies, despite the fact that, to the best of our knowledge, no formal investigation has been launched in order to corroborate the veracity of the said allegations.”
The pilot’s union has also called for Air Malta to launch a formal investigation into the underlying causes of any fatigue in an effort to prevent the materialisation of internationally-recognised flight safety risks in the future.