Sri Lankan Airlines: Management Turns ‘Blind Eye’ To Weliamanuna’s Findings

April 29, 2015

A cross section of Sri Lankan Airlines employees who fearlessly came forward to reveal the blatant ongoing malpractices and fraud to the J.C.Weliamuna led ‘Board of Inquiry’ (BOI) complained to ‘Colombo Telegraph’ that nothing has changed since in the investigation report revealed damning findings at the end of March 2015.

New Chairman Ajit Dias

“It is almost a month since the ‘Weliamuna Report’ was submitted to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe which was also subsequently exposed across the print and electronic media. The reports highlighted grave findings as to why the airline was financially raped to the tune of over Rs 120 billion.

Strangely several names of those that were responsible for making the airline incur this huge loss still continue to operate in the airline.

A very senior Cabin Crew Member with over 30 years of experience with the airline told ‘Colombo Telegraph’, “There was a situation once when one of our Cabin Crew Members inadvertently took a ‘face towel’ from the Airport Hotel in Bangkok Thailand and was terminated instantly. However our airline seems to be having ‘different rules for different folks’ and it is disheartening to know that our new Chairman Ajit Dias and the Board of Directors of the airline are turning a blind eye to the now exposed high ranking officials who went on to commit much greater fraud. They should immediately suspend all employees who have been identified in the ‘Weliamuna Report’ until the full scale investigation in completed” said an employee who did not wish to be named.

Disgruntled passengers who used to fly Sri Lankan Airlines very frequently also went on to complain about the Flight Operations Department and those that run the safety side of the airline’s business. “It is brought to our attention that the present Chief Operations Officer Capt. Druvi Perera is an individual who never enrolled in a ‘Flight Training School’ when he was studying to be a pilot in the United States of America. He was home schooled and an FAA Instructor eventually certified him as a pilot. The repercussions of these inadequacies that the airline overlooked when recruiting him is what now exposed in the ‘Weliamuna Report’. The flight he commanded to Chennai is now one of the most talked about ‘Pilot Related Incidents’ where he himself covered his mishap due to the power he wielded due to his close ties with the former government during the Rajapaksa rule.                                                              Read More