JTrain things are slowly changing in the DRC.....this pilot was in South Africa for a Sim Check on the 737-200 which he flys in DRC as Civil Aviation in DRC is now insisting that all Pilots undertake sim recurrency once a year to renew their licenses. During the course of this check the simulator instructor had serious doubts as to the ability of the candidate as he did not understand the basics of IFR flying. By checking his file he discovered his DRC license was issued on the basis of a South African license which upon contact with CAA it was discovered that the license actually belonged to a Nigerian Pilot with a different name - ie he had changed the license with his name. This is by NO means an isolated incident!!! I know of more than one other pilot using this same license with a different name in DRC.
Before Civil Aviation in DRC issues a license they do try to check the authenticity of the original license which is difficult in countries such as South Africa. Until South Africa makes the a decision for total transparency like the FAA does and makes ALL their Air Crew Licenses verifiable ONLINE this type of incident will continue to occur. Hat's off to the sim instructor who did not take things at face value - you just may have prevented a future accident!!!
