Indian skies safe despite 'fake' pilots
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Indian skies safe despite 'fake' pilots
New Delhi -It began with a dangerous landing and has resulted in 16 pilots being sacked. India's fake flying licence scam posed a severe challenge to the country's airline safety regulator.
But in an interview with AFP, the head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said a crackdown on pilots that involved surprise and random checks had successfully identified the fraudsters.
"Now we are doing thorough checks of all the licences that are being issued. We have left the scandal behind us," said EK Bharat Bhushan. "We will do whatever it takes to clean-up the entire system."
He also said Indian skies were safe despite the evidence of qualification fraud - a rampant problem found in other sensitive areas in corruption-plagued India, including medicine.
"It is certainly not unsafe to fly with an Indian carrier," he said. "If you look at our records, it's not bad. There haven't been a lot of accidents.
"We maintain close surveillance over both airplanes and airports."
But questions remain over whether the under-resourced DGCA is capable of probing deep enough into a problem that has caused profound anxiety for travellers in India.
Fake mark sheets
The fake licence scam came to light after a pilot with the private airline Indigo landed her Airbus aircraft on the nose wheel instead of the rear wheels in March this year.
The unusual and potentially dangerous landing alerted the DGCA, which immediately launched a probe into her credentials.
"We grounded her immediately," says Bhushan. "Then we got an email from her estranged husband saying she had flunked her pilot exam and was not qualified to fly.
"That opened a Pandora's Box. We launched a full investigation and found she had submitted a fake marksheet to procure a pilot licence."
More checks showed a worrying trend of licences being obtained illegally by fudging mark sheets and flying hours with the connivance of DGCA officials.
A total of 16 "fake" pilots employed in major domestic airlines, including state-owned national carrier Air India, as well as leading private airlines Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo were outed by investigators.
Three DGCA employees were accused of involvement and they now face charges in court.
Demand for pilots has exploded in India since the 1990s, when deregulation allowed private players to cater to the growing number of Indians choosing air travel over long train journeys.
The emergence of no-frills airlines saw a fresh spurt in the number of operators and there are now estimated to be 8,000 chief and co-pilots plying the busy skies over the subcontinent.
Bhushan admits that the DGCA has struggled to keep up with the pace of expansion, with its modest resources over-stretched.
"We are short-staffed at the moment. But we are in the process of creating 550 new posts. We are also trying to make the whole process of licence granting online so that it becomes easier to catch cheats," he said.
He also conceded it was a challenge to check the licences of all the pilots operating in India, the fastest growing domestic market in the world with 18.4 percent year-on-year growth, according to Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
"It is a challenge for the safety regulator in such a scenario where the number of travellers increases by the day and so do the number of flights," said Bhushan.
"The passenger capacity has jumped from 65 million 10 years ago to 235 million. There are 438 scheduled aircraft and eight operators. And then there are numerous chartered and non-scheduled aircrafts," he said.
The DGCA has also had to tackle the problem of bogus flying schools.
A report on the NDTV news channel said flying instructors at the Rajasthan Flying School were bribed to fudge flying hours. The school saved fuel costs and students got their licences faster.
It meant prospective pilots flew about 40 hours for a licence that required 200 flying hours.
"There are 40 flying schools operating in the country which are approved. We have done a detailed audit and taken action where ever we found discrepancies," Bhushan said, adding that the problem had been "exaggerated" by the media.
"We found there were only a couple of agents who were promising admission to flying schools in exchange for money. Due action has been taken against them," he said.
But in an interview with AFP, the head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said a crackdown on pilots that involved surprise and random checks had successfully identified the fraudsters.
"Now we are doing thorough checks of all the licences that are being issued. We have left the scandal behind us," said EK Bharat Bhushan. "We will do whatever it takes to clean-up the entire system."
He also said Indian skies were safe despite the evidence of qualification fraud - a rampant problem found in other sensitive areas in corruption-plagued India, including medicine.
"It is certainly not unsafe to fly with an Indian carrier," he said. "If you look at our records, it's not bad. There haven't been a lot of accidents.
"We maintain close surveillance over both airplanes and airports."
But questions remain over whether the under-resourced DGCA is capable of probing deep enough into a problem that has caused profound anxiety for travellers in India.
Fake mark sheets
The fake licence scam came to light after a pilot with the private airline Indigo landed her Airbus aircraft on the nose wheel instead of the rear wheels in March this year.
The unusual and potentially dangerous landing alerted the DGCA, which immediately launched a probe into her credentials.
"We grounded her immediately," says Bhushan. "Then we got an email from her estranged husband saying she had flunked her pilot exam and was not qualified to fly.
"That opened a Pandora's Box. We launched a full investigation and found she had submitted a fake marksheet to procure a pilot licence."
More checks showed a worrying trend of licences being obtained illegally by fudging mark sheets and flying hours with the connivance of DGCA officials.
A total of 16 "fake" pilots employed in major domestic airlines, including state-owned national carrier Air India, as well as leading private airlines Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo were outed by investigators.
Three DGCA employees were accused of involvement and they now face charges in court.
Demand for pilots has exploded in India since the 1990s, when deregulation allowed private players to cater to the growing number of Indians choosing air travel over long train journeys.
The emergence of no-frills airlines saw a fresh spurt in the number of operators and there are now estimated to be 8,000 chief and co-pilots plying the busy skies over the subcontinent.
Bhushan admits that the DGCA has struggled to keep up with the pace of expansion, with its modest resources over-stretched.
"We are short-staffed at the moment. But we are in the process of creating 550 new posts. We are also trying to make the whole process of licence granting online so that it becomes easier to catch cheats," he said.
He also conceded it was a challenge to check the licences of all the pilots operating in India, the fastest growing domestic market in the world with 18.4 percent year-on-year growth, according to Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
"It is a challenge for the safety regulator in such a scenario where the number of travellers increases by the day and so do the number of flights," said Bhushan.
"The passenger capacity has jumped from 65 million 10 years ago to 235 million. There are 438 scheduled aircraft and eight operators. And then there are numerous chartered and non-scheduled aircrafts," he said.
The DGCA has also had to tackle the problem of bogus flying schools.
A report on the NDTV news channel said flying instructors at the Rajasthan Flying School were bribed to fudge flying hours. The school saved fuel costs and students got their licences faster.
It meant prospective pilots flew about 40 hours for a licence that required 200 flying hours.
"There are 40 flying schools operating in the country which are approved. We have done a detailed audit and taken action where ever we found discrepancies," Bhushan said, adding that the problem had been "exaggerated" by the media.
"We found there were only a couple of agents who were promising admission to flying schools in exchange for money. Due action has been taken against them," he said.
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Not a unique problem exclusive to India. I believe you may find the same in the Middle East, China, Central and South America, and yes, I hate to say, before the FAA maintained computer records… the land of Velveeta Cheese, the good old USA
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Is there anyone that can provide stastistics to compare incidents/accidents relative to other countries etc and end this innuendo for onceand for all?
You can't compare incidents/accidents and ascertain the safety of a country's air travel. A serious incident or accident is often the result of many breakdowns in the operation.
The problem is that India like all of Asia, does not have a just reporting culture. The focus is always on blame and punishment. So the result is that many potentially deadly, serious incidents that are stopped go completely unaccounted.
For example, say that a crew inputs the wrong weight into the FMC during setup which would result in the aircraft crashing. But as they roll down the runway, one of the pilots spots it and firewalls the throttles early enough to make it off the ground.
In a just system, that pilot will report it, it is now tracked and documented so the system is investigated to ascertain if it can be improved. In the Indian (or rest of Asia) system the pilot would be fired or jailed if he comes forward, so most will burry it if at all possible.
If you now compare statistics it would show:
Non-reporting / blame / punishment system (like India) - 0 incidents.
Just reporting culture / improvement / prevention system - 1 incident.
So do you think the non-reporting Asian system is safer? Get the point?
The shocking aspect of that article is that the official touting that it is safe to travel on Indian carriers goes on to admit that Air Travel grew too fast to regulate in another paragraph. Basically, admitting that growth was put in front of safety and that they are playing catchup. The funny thing is that they haven't caught up yet, so how can it be safer? Weird logic
This is the problem with rapid growth. Healthy growth is more important than rapid exponential growth. Healthy, sustainable growth is better in the long run to avoid serious, systemic problems - like the ones they are now facing.
That is why these locations that have tried to shortcut their way to the top are destined to fail until they change their growth rate (China, India, Middle East). They are trying to leapfrog other societies that achieved their current status over very long periods. These emerging economies are sacrificing quality for time, always a bad idea.
As pilots, we know what happens when you rush.
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the old days... I just love India
Told by my MD not to enter the major defect in the TL, as it reflected badly on the Indian Engineers. Not certain how to retract the mayday call due to PX failure, but not my problem. They did not wish to attempt to remove the outflow valve, as it was phisiclly cracked, and if removed they could not repair, and do not have access to order a replacement. (as in MONEY).
Told never to divert as failure to get to destination is a reportable incident.
Told that the damage to the wing tip, was not that serious, and had been filled with car filler.
Told that the damage to the tail cone, due to slightly out of balance when loaded with engineers in the hangar, was not really that serious, and if it fell off there would be no loss of control.
The C of G was computed on the jacking points, thats fine, but the document was then created on the weels. Thus there official CG was actually outside the aircraft. I was asked to bull my way thru the CA issue procedure, and managed to demonstrate a correct loading graph for the highly experienced FOI....
The bleed air ducting that had failed due old age, was replaced by domestic heating duct, from local car market.
Told never to divert as failure to get to destination is a reportable incident.
Told that the damage to the wing tip, was not that serious, and had been filled with car filler.
Told that the damage to the tail cone, due to slightly out of balance when loaded with engineers in the hangar, was not really that serious, and if it fell off there would be no loss of control.
The C of G was computed on the jacking points, thats fine, but the document was then created on the weels. Thus there official CG was actually outside the aircraft. I was asked to bull my way thru the CA issue procedure, and managed to demonstrate a correct loading graph for the highly experienced FOI....
The bleed air ducting that had failed due old age, was replaced by domestic heating duct, from local car market.
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Gulfstreamaviator
That's over exaggerated many times over. Far from the truth, you are painting the wrong picture.
Improve your spellings and once you are done go back to TOYS'R'US and get something to keep you busy
Improve your spellings and once you are done go back to TOYS'R'US and get something to keep you busy
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Good post Sqawk .For a change a balanced and well analysed opinion.The Just Culture gaining traction in the West has a long way to before it crosses the Prime Meridian.
As to the fake records issue, I can attest that even the FAA are sometimes caught out. Maybe not in certification but there are reported incidents of pilots flying on expired medicals and with conditions that would preclude hiring.The airlines too are not exemptfrm egg-on-the-faces over here. A good example would be the Captain of the Colgan aircraft.
The difference, though, is the will to fix the problems. With increaseing computerization it gets easier to track records and pilot histories.Sadly, India,despite providing the world with computer expertise,is lagging far behind.
Alt3.
As to the fake records issue, I can attest that even the FAA are sometimes caught out. Maybe not in certification but there are reported incidents of pilots flying on expired medicals and with conditions that would preclude hiring.The airlines too are not exemptfrm egg-on-the-faces over here. A good example would be the Captain of the Colgan aircraft.
The difference, though, is the will to fix the problems. With increaseing computerization it gets easier to track records and pilot histories.Sadly, India,despite providing the world with computer expertise,is lagging far behind.
Alt3.
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@gulfstreamaviator
Why even bother posting nonsense like this ?
Not that this has anything to do with safety, but they do issue clearances before push.
Why even bother posting nonsense like this ?
If Indian aviation is so safe, why can't they issue clearances before pushback?
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Fake pilots exist the world over. I think we've all heard of pilots who have flown a few hours in Bravo India Charlie or Pen Echo November. But some 20 years ago I gave a statement as an "expert witness" in case (subsequently lost) where a candidate turned an ATPL subject (set by a well known national authority) "fail" into a "pass". There was no doubt that in my mind, for a whole variety of reasons, that the pass was "forged" but this guy got his ATPL. So unfortunately, they are all around us!
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