KM pilot delayed Rome flight to wait for colleague on holiday

A KM Airlines flight from Rome to Malta was delayed by almost an hour to allow a pilot, who was on holiday in the city with his family, enough time to reach the airport.

The episode took place in late April, the morning of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican.

Having flown several dignitaries, including the president and the prime minister, to Rome to attend the funeral, the KM Airlines flight was set to return to Malta from Fiumicino Airport at 9.50am local time.

However, shortly before the flight’s scheduled departure, its pilot was contacted by fellow pilot, George Frank Mizzi, who asked for the flight to be delayed to give him and his family time to arrive at the airport.

Mizzi, a former head of the pilots’ union, was on holiday in Rome together with several members of his family at the time, Times of Malta is informed.

The flight eventually departed at 10.36am, 46 minutes behind schedule and landed in Malta 45 minutes late.

Sources said the airline’s investigation found that Mizzi breached company policy, which prohibits staff from requesting special travel arrangements.

Mizzi also breached policy by directly contacting the flight’s pilot over the matter, rather than informing the company’s operations team in Luqa.

According to sources, Mizzi told company officials that he had made the request because a member of his family, who was travelling with him, was unwell and needed to return home.

Mizzi was eventually disciplined, with his staff travel privileges suspended for three months. He also received a letter of caution which will remain in his file for a year.

The other pilot, who acceded to Mizzi’s request, was also disciplined, receiving a warning over the incident.

When contacted, both Mizzi and KM Airlines declined to comment on the episode.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the pilots’ union described both pilots as “exemplary professionals who would never abuse of their positions”.

The spokesperson said that “ALPA will not delve into the particulars of the case”, adding that Mizzi was off-duty at the time of the episode, effectively rendering him and his family regular passengers.

The spokesperson insisted that the flight’s pilot “followed the ethos of the company” to provide a caring service to all passengers by “waiting for this passenger on medical grounds, having evaluated that there would be no operational consequences to the delay and after consulting with KMMA Operations Control”.

“It is concerning that details of events concerning KMMA employees have come to light in the public domain,” the spokesperson said, arguing that “this breach could have serious repercussions on flight and public safety, pilot well-being and, ultimately, KMMA’s success”.

This is not the first episode of its kind to involve high-ranking pilots. In 2012, then ALPA chief Dominic Azzopardi was suspected of causing a 30-minute delay on an Air Malta flight from Milan after arriving late with his family for boarding and giving unauthorised instructions for check-in to be reopened.

A probe set up by the company lasted over 14 months, with the outcome never being publicly disclosed.