Bipin Shah   Self Employed
The list of pilots whose licences have been suspended for being fake is swelling by the day.

 

Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) EK Bhartbhushan confirmed on Thursday that 18 more licences have been suspended in Jaipur, taking the total suspensions to 23.

Five licences were suspended earlier for pilots having submitted fake marksheets. But till now, only two of the accused pilots have been arrested.

 

Both are SpiceJet pilots and have already been sacked. Captain Anuj Kumar and first officer Amit Mundra have been accused of misrepresenting their flying hours in order to obtain licences from DGCA.

 

While the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau is examing other cases of fudged marksheets and false flying hours, the regulator DGCA too is doing its best to tackle this widening fraud.

 

Bharatbhushan told DNA that DGCA has already completed systematic verification of about 1,500 licences in the last three weeks and would soon complete the process for all 4,054 licences issued by it.

 

Then, it has also commenced a special audit for all 40 flying clubs across the country to determine if these schools are competent to certify that a candidate has completed 200 hours of flying before applying for a CPL.

 

Lastly, the regulator has also asked airlines to do some checks on their end.

“This is not a blame game between DGCA and airlines. We have merely asked them to also check at their end whether a pilot who has a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) is competent enough to sit for the Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL). The airline recommends if a CPL is fit for sitting for an ATPL exam. We are conducting all possible checks ourselves anyway”.

 

Officials from flying schools and clubs blame corruption in the system for the problem. Flying officer C Kumar from Bombay Flying Club says, “The reason for such cases is simple - corruption, which will hold true in all professions.”
Mar 24th 2011 23:48