Mumbai: An Australian national working as a commander for Air India Express since 2008 went missing on Friday morning. A day earlier, the 53-year-old commander was on duty in Abu Dhabi from where he was supposed to operate a flight to Trichy.
But he received a call from the airline saying that he had been taken off duty and should report to the Director-General of Civil Aviation with his pilot's licence and personal flying log book as there were doubts regarding the veracity of his documents. The commander flew back to Mumbai and, instead of going to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) office, apparently took the first flight out of India to Australia.
Air India Express has derostered the pilot. The DGCA has ordered an inquiry.
Since the time he joined AI Express as a commander in 2008, Capt Goran Pavicevic has flown over 2,800 hours. It roughly translates to having operated about 460 flights. He was rostered to operate the Abu Dhabi-Trichy-Chennai AI Express flight IX-614 on Wednesday night.
The flight was eventually operated by another commander as, hours before the flight, the airline received a mail from Rishworth Aviation, the New Zealand-based pilot-leasing company through which Pavicevic secured a job in AI Express. The mail expressed doubts over the veracity of some flight entries in his log book. These were done prior to his appointment in AI Express.
11/09/11 Manju V/Times of India
looks like the "fake" expats are now gonna have a tough call..
your views??