Experts and professionals say a pilot can smoke, but they cannot smoke inside aircraft.
The question of smoking arises when a Kathmandu Post report claimed that the pilot of US-Bangla plane which crashed in Nepal in March was smoking inside the cockpit and mentally stressed.
A pilot needs to have license to fly a commercial plane but before that he or she must pass medical test along with other tests.
Aircraft Accident Investigation Group of Bangladesh chief Captain Salahuddin M Rahmatullah said, “If high level of nicotine is identified in the medical test, we warn the would-be pilot.”
He, however, said, there is no restriction in smoking but, we discourage it on health ground.
General Secretary of Bangladesh Airlines Pilots’ Association Captain Sajjadul Haque told Bangla Tribune, “Pilots can smoke, but we discourage it. But, a pilot cannot smoke inside the aircraft.”
Civil Aviation Authority Director Wing Commander Chowdhury M Ziaul Kabir said, “Once smoking inside the cockpit was allowed, but now it is prohibited.”