New Delhi: With the arrest of Spice Jet pilots Amit Mundra and Ajay Chaudhary in Jaipur who, on paper, faked 200 hours of flying experience, mandatory to fly commercial, the number of 'fake' pilots in Indian skies has risen to 17. Amit and Ajay are 2005 batch trainees of the Rajasthan Flying Club.
''There was a conspiracy between these pilots and the Rajasthan Flying School. They created fudged records to help pilots who had not completed the Minimum Flying Hours to become eligible for Commercial Pilot Licences,'' said Ajit Singh, Additional Director General, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Rajasthan.
The Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau has named 13 fake pilots from the Flying School in Jaipur and the Haryana Institute of Civil Aviation.
Jet Lite, Jet Airways: Nitin Jain, Rajesh Mirani, Sanjiv Gupta
Some of them are still flying, pending inquiry.
But a close look at the licence-obtaining procedure shows both parties have to be involved.
To get a commercial pilot licence, a candidate must have 1,500 flying hours as co-pilot and should have passed the DGCA advanced flying exams
Students unable to clear their Maths and Physics exams forge mark sheets. Flying instructors who issue certificates often forge entries to show higher number of flying hours.
Even in examinations conducted by the DGCA, which are supposed to be fool-proof, students who fare badly forge their mark sheets and submit it back to DGCA when they apply for licences. And in most cases, the DGCA does not corroborate the documents with its own records.
Mr. Kanu Guhain, Former Director General of Civil Aviation said, ''Every point where manual inputs are required, there is scope for forgery.''
The Aviation Ministry has woken up to the huge rot in the industry. The Ministry has decided to scrutinize all 4,000 licences issued in the last five years and debug the entire examination system. Until the review, however, thousands of travellers will continue to fly in huge uncertainty.
''There was a conspiracy between these pilots and the Rajasthan Flying School. They created fudged records to help pilots who had not completed the Minimum Flying Hours to become eligible for Commercial Pilot Licences,'' said Ajit Singh, Additional Director General, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Rajasthan.
The Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau has named 13 fake pilots from the Flying School in Jaipur and the Haryana Institute of Civil Aviation.
Jet Lite, Jet Airways: Nitin Jain, Rajesh Mirani, Sanjiv Gupta
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Some of them are still flying, pending inquiry.
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But a close look at the licence-obtaining procedure shows both parties have to be involved.
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To get a commercial pilot licence, a candidate must have 1,500 flying hours as co-pilot and should have passed the DGCA advanced flying exams
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Students unable to clear their Maths and Physics exams forge mark sheets. Flying instructors who issue certificates often forge entries to show higher number of flying hours.
Advertisement
Even in examinations conducted by the DGCA, which are supposed to be fool-proof, students who fare badly forge their mark sheets and submit it back to DGCA when they apply for licences. And in most cases, the DGCA does not corroborate the documents with its own records.
Mr. Kanu Guhain, Former Director General of Civil Aviation said, ''Every point where manual inputs are required, there is scope for forgery.''
The Aviation Ministry has woken up to the huge rot in the industry. The Ministry has decided to scrutinize all 4,000 licences issued in the last five years and debug the entire examination system. Until the review, however, thousands of travellers will continue to fly in huge uncertainty.
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