Zainab Musa Aliyu

A pilot with the Turkish Airlines says he was dismissed for opposing the company’s new regulation on praying in the cockpit while onboard.

Ahmet Bolat, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Turkish Airlines, in July, had announced the company’s plans to introduce a new regulation allowing pilots to pray in the cockpit.

But the dismissed pilot, in a new interview with Gazete Duvar Saturday, narrated how he came to be dismissed after opposing the new regulation.

According to him, the regulation in question “is risky in terms of flight safety”.

The dismissed pilot said when he approached Mr Bolat on the reason for his dismissal and he said: “I don’t have to give reasons, I dismiss whoever I want.”

The dismissed pilot however said his response to his co-pilot was made during Ramadan when said co-pilot had told him he /she was fasting during that flight to which he responded “fasting during a 12-hour flight is risky.”

He said: “The first officer on the flight had 3-4 years of experience. They stated that they had high religious sensitivities. But in my opinion, they are not that sensitive about religion.

“They are someone who tries to gain a position by using religion. This person’s father is a professor of philosophy at a school in London, but I think he raised his child to be a snitch,” the dismissed pilot said.

“I am a Muslim too. But what we do (being a pilot) is risky. The co-pilot said to me, ‘I can pray as you go to the toilet’. The toilet is a necessity, but you can pray after the flight.”