September 15, 2018

On Friday, Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said that being online for longer hours on social media is causing sleep deprivation in pilots.

Speaking at the 57th annual conference by Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine, the Air Force Chief said that being active on social media till late hours causes sleep deprivations in pilots & it is very important to have a check mechanism for the same.

"In old days, if a pilot had one drink too many, barman would know. Even if the barman did not know, other people knew about it & the pilot would be laid off flying for the day. Today we even have breath analysers for that," Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said.

"The problem that is coming now because of social media is sleep deprivation. There has to be a check mechanism by which we should be able to make out that this person isn't fit enough to get in the cockpit," he added.

Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa cited the example of 2013 air crash in Rajasthan's Barmer & said that the aircraft crashed as the pilot was sleep deprived.

"Social media usage is a new challenge caused due to change in the society," he said.

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