When i joined up, i was told in no uncertain terms by the instructor that if an expat was involved in any incident then he would get the blame. In all those mentioned incidents/accidents i can tell you that the local under training is still on the line or has gotten an upgrade etc. Just how it is.
In my opinion there are no expat line pilots in India and should all be paid a minimum of Trainer/Examiner wages. Those who have worked there will understand what im saying here.
I can tell you now that a RA TCAS incident that i was involved in was never actioned due to the offending aircraft being an Indian Airbus 320 with a local crew? I dont know, no evidence to back this up.
India is terribly dirty etc etc but it is such an interesting and mysterious place that i will probably be drawn to it time and again. Under different circumstances i wouldnt mind flying there again.
I still havent worked the place out it is so full of mystery, i mean where on earth can one have two female pilots (skipper and copilot) fly around in a 737 and then be told that they cant hold hands with their boyfriends in a public park because of the moral police?????? The boys hold hands so much in India that i thought the whole place was full of limp wristed young men, but this is totally accepted as a sign of friendship amongst men.
Infrastructure, it has to catch up with the system, just when it does i have no idea but new planes are coming in weekly making the job of keeping up just that much harder. I am sure there are many of you out there who have been told you are number 10 to start and number 20 in the landing sequence, and this will go on. Some pilots i have flown with laughed when i told them that one day if things did not get any better, they would be taking holding fuel equivalent to the sector fuel on a DEL-BOM leg. Slowing down to minimum clean speed miles before TOD is just not the way that Mr Boeing and French Bus designed their equipment to be used.
Just my couple of rupees worth.
cheers
coco