Sars row grounds Air India flights

Air India pilots say they want guarantees

India's national airline, Air India, has cancelled five flights after a row with pilots over the pneumonia-like Sars virus.

Air India pilots are refusing to fly with any crew member who has travelled to a Sars-affected country in the past 10 days.

The move comes a day after Indian health officials ordered tough new measures to combat Sars.

The country has so far reported only five confirmed cases of Sars, but there is growing concern amongst health officials.

We have rejected the demands of the pilots

Air India spokesman

According to doctors, the absence of a proper disease detection system makes a country like India particularly vulnerable.

Correspondents say prevention is key in a country of more than one billion people, most of whom do not have access to quality health care.

Flights hit

On Friday, Air India flights to London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Kuwait were cancelled after pilots refused to fly the aircraft.

A member of the Indian Pilots Guild, Mahesh Gulabani, told the BBC that pilots would not fly aircraft without a certificate stating that crew members had not travelled to a Sars-hit country in the past 10 days.

KNOWN DEATH TOLL

China: 110

Hong Kong: 109

Singapore: 19

Canada: 16

Vietnam: 5

Thailand: 2

Malaysia: 2

Philippines: 1

Source: WHO/ local health authorities

Map: Global overview

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Singapore and Hong Kong are two of the cities worst-hit by Sars.

The pilots have already refused to fly to those two destinations, forcing the airline to deploy executive pilots.

The rown has led to Air India cutting half of its scheduled flights for Friday.

An airline spokesman said the management would not issue certificates, since no other airlines were doing so.

"We have rejected the demands of the pilots' guild. All other international flights are operating smoothly to south-east Asia," the spokesman, Jitendra Bhargav, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

In neighbouring Pakistan, the government is considering halting flights to Sars-hit destinations as a precaution, reports say.

New measures

Health workers fear India is particularly vulnerable

On Thursday, Indian health officials announced that airports in the country would carry out compulsory screening of all those arriving off international flights.

All airport officials have been ordered to wear masks.

Until last week, India had escaped the mystery virus first detected in Hong Kong last month.

It has claimed the lives of more than 250 people since.

There have now been about 4,000 probable cases around the globe, mainly in China, Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore, according to the World Health Organization.