A Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus aircraft soars past a residential building on the island of Hulhumale, situated in the southern part of North Male Atoll, Maldives. — AFP file photo used for illustrative purposes only.
Sri Lanka's national airline has suspended a captain after he locked out his female copilot when she took a bathroom break during a flight from Sydney to Colombo, according to officials. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Sri Lanka has launched an investigation into the matter.
"The airline is fully cooperating with the relevant authorities, and the captain has been grounded pending the outcome of the investigation," SriLankan Airlines stated in a release. The captain reportedly disagreed with the female copilot for leaving the cockpit without arranging for another crew member to accompany him, as per standard operating procedures. Cabin crew members had to convince the captain to allow the first officer to return to her seat on the Airbus A330. The two-pilot aircraft landed safely without any incidents.
The financially troubled carrier has been grappling with chronic delays and shortages of technical crew after it ran out of funds to pay for refurbished engines for some of its grounded aircraft. Successive governments have attempted to sell off the debt-laden carrier. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) demanded the restructuring of loss-making state enterprises, including SriLankan Airlines, when it approved a $2.9 billion bailout for Colombo last year. This bailout followed the South Asian island's default on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 due to an unprecedented shortage of foreign exchange needed for essential imports.
With nearly 6,000 employees, SriLankan Airlines is the largest and most costly of the cash-draining companies that are straining the budget. However, analysts have cautioned that finding a company willing to invest in the carrier would be extremely difficult given its history of interference, mismanagement, and volatile partnerships.
