An Air India captain was found unresponsive in his New Delhi hotel room during an overnight layover and later pronounced dead at a hospital, prompting renewed warnings from a pilots’ union over crew fatigue.
The captain, identified as Sunny Sharad Asaldekar, 46, had checked into the hotel on Thursday, according to The New Indian Express. His brother contacted the hotel manager the following evening after Asaldekar stopped answering calls. The manager used a master key to enter the locked room and found him unconscious and unresponsive.
Police responded and Asaldekar was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
Air India confirmed the death in a statement to The New Indian Express: “Air India is deeply saddened at the passing away of a cockpit crew member in Delhi last night. He was on a layover rest at a hotel in Delhi where he was found unconscious last evening. He was rushed to the hospital immediately, where he was declared dead.”
A post-mortem examination was conducted, but the cause of death has not yet been determined.
The Federation of Indian Pilots renewed its call for an urgent review of fatigue-management practices following the death, though the union said it was not directly linking fatigue to this specific case, according to The Times of India.
Fatigue Has Long Dogged Commercial Aviation
Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, a former U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilot who also flew for American Airlines and FedEx, told Fox News Digital that fatigue has been a persistent problem for pilots.
“Pilot fatigue in aviation has been an issue since day one,” Buckley said.
Buckley pushed back on the assumption that an overnight layover guarantees rest. “A layover is just that. It’s a crew laying over in a city that is not their home base,” he said. Pilots may land in the early morning and then try to sleep during daylight hours, working against the body’s natural rhythm. “It’s just unnatural to sleep during off hours,” he said.
Buckley said fatigue was among the reasons he ultimately changed course in his own career. He noted that east-west long-haul routes crossing multiple time zones are especially punishing. “When you’re crossing multiple time zones, [that’s] when your body can really get messed up,” he said.
Fatigue can also accumulate beyond a single flight or layover, Buckley said, pointing to irregular hours, prolonged sitting, poor diet, limited exercise and extended time away from family as compounding factors.
He said U.S. safeguards include federal crew-rest requirements, airline policies and labor agreements, but stressed that pilots themselves bear responsibility for judging their own fitness to fly. “At the end of the day … you know who determines if a pilot is fit to fly? You,” Buckley said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Air India for further comment.
