Bipin Shah   Self Employed
It is finally official: pilots have to be proficient in the Queen's English if they have to keep their licences valid. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has set December 31 as deadline for all pilots in the country to clear English language proficiency tests, failing which they cannot exercise their licence privileges. So, for those who can barely put together nouns, proverbs, conjunctions into grammatically correct sentences, it's time to go back to school books.

English language proficiency for pilots is an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirement, which contracting states like India have to comply with by March 2011. Keeping with the ICAO norms (which were later adopted by the DGCA), an office memorandum was issued by the DGCA recently to airlines and aviation organizations asking them to nominate examinees who can conduct these language proficiency tests for their pilots, flight engineers, air traffic controllers, etc.

''A board specially constituted by the DGCA for this will conduct an oral test, which these chosen examinees will have to clear to be an approved examiner,'' said an aviation source. Following this, they will conduct tests for pilots, engineer, etc, of the concerned airline or flying school. ''The pilots will be issued with a certificate by the examiner upon satisfactory performance,'' says the DGCA memorandum, adding that no licence shall be considered valid without a minimum English language proficiency of Level 4.
Nov 8th 2010 05:35