SriLankan grounds captain after mid-air argument

Sri Lanka’s national airline grounded a captain after he locked out his female copilot when she took a toilet break during a flight from Sydney to Colombo, officials said.

Sri Lanka’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), had initiated an investigation.

“The airline is fully cooperating with the relevant authorities, and the captain has been grounded pending the outcome of the investigation,” SriLankan Airlines said in a statement.

The captain clashed with the female copilot over her stepping out without arranging for another crew member to accompany him in the cockpit, which was in line with standard operating procedures, an airline source said.

The cabin crew had to persuade the captain to let the first officer back into her seat on the Airbus A330.

The two-pilot aircraft landed without incident.

The cash-strapped carrier has been plagued with chronic delays and shortages of technical crew after it ran out of money to pay for refurbished engines for some of its grounded aircraft.

Successive governments have tried to sell off the debt-laden carrier.

The International Monetary Fund demanded the restructuring of loss-making state enterprises, including SriLankan airlines, when it granted Colombo a $2.9 billion bailout last year.

The bailout came after the South Asian island defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 as it faced an unprecedented shortage of foreign exchange needed for essential imports.

With nearly 6,000 staff, SriLankan Airlines is the most extensive and most expensive cash-hemorrhaging company draining the budget.

However, analysts had warned that finding a company willing to pour money into the carrier would be immensely challenging given its history of interference, mismanagement, and turbulent partnerships.