IndiGo with more fake pilots
 

IndiGo today had to suspend another female "Captain" for having a fake licence.

Another IndiGo Captain has been suspended after losing control of the aircraft at BLR.....

Here is some background from the TOI

Two more pilots land in trouble for fake licences - The Times of India

Just in such a crap place someone will be release a Capt who doesn`t how to land an airplane.

Amazing..

The two IndiGo "Captains" in question are now under lock and key :D

So sad that it's come to this.
All the Indian nationals that I have flown with, albeit mostly ex-IAF, were brilliant.

I was out there recently, and there are some really good quality people. But there are some total muppets as well, along with some positively dire organisations.

I'm not surprised that Indigo has it's problems. That is the gang that these comics:
http://www.pprune.org/biz-jets-ag-fl...ke-plague.html
use to position crews around.

The flights I was on seemed to be ok notwithstanding some horrendous delays but as the adage goes, you pay peanuts......

OFTEN? I think ONCE would spark the Alarm Bells !!

Sleeze, while I do not disagree with you I am truly surprised: happily so! Am glad you did not go through what both myself and the other DGCA approved TRE/I's did at airlines such as Air India.

The overwhelming majority of ex IAF "Commanders" I had experience with via personal experience and colleagues' conversations detailed nothing but archaic methods of bastardry techniques belittling those they saw beneath them: the FO's and FA's to name but two. CRM skills were as alien to them as humility and integrity, least of all common human courtesy. The FO's were the worse because you would witness how they kissed the tail of the Capt they were with as opposed to how they treated the FA's. You just knew the true charactor of the person behind all the BS.

Air India and the entire DGCA is a despicable cesspit of abhorrent corruption. There are of course some highly talented individual pilots out there and it is shame to see their passion and skill caught up in this.

I flew with an ex-IAF instructor (at AI as 777 FO) who's x-wind take off technique drew a "taking over" call from me at <100 ft AGL (JFK). Zero technique applied and zero scope to see what was happening as a result of this severe lack of skill and training. (Wide body transports operate differently to single pilots jets. He didn't get it, was never taught and didn't want to know either). Who to blame? Him or the SYSTEM that checked him to line and deems this OK?

So far in the past few months we've seen kids forging log books to mask 20 hours as >200 hrs, others checked to line on 737NG (in the case at point), etc yet unable to recover from straight & level flight once the autopilot is kicked out, "Commanders" landing on the nose gear, more and more "Captains" with forged credentials, license theory passes and certificates (from flying school to airline to the regulatory body...). Also, don't forget!! In India EVERY pilot is called "Captain" be they playing flight sim on their desktop or FO with 185 hrs TT in the RHS of 777 over Afghanistan.

And what of Mangalore? Lives lost and truths uncovered yet covered up quicker. What was the knee jerk reaction of the airline with ZERO evidence immediately after the crash: blame the expat. Pure and utter xenophobia that is also rampant and supported.

Now look at the expat contracts: rampant with fraud from shady dealings between shady agencies and corrupt as hell departments at airlines such as AI.

Some FO's told me of their "batch-mates" bribing DGCA officials to "lose" their colleagues papers for ATPL certification or endorsement licensing so they could get 3 or 6 months ahead of them in the pecking order.

FO's logging P1 U/S for legs flown as well and those not flown by them whether the Capt was TRI qualified or not. Of course these sectors have to be signed off and stamped by the relevant PIC. That isn't hard to do when a kid presents a log book with a multitude of post-it stickers throughout it, banking on either the TRI's ignorance or willing compliance to keep the "system" he/she graduated from alive and well. Then with seemingly minimal REAL time these corrupt children are made "Commander"!!!!

Corruption is an ops normal means of business in that part of the world and that industry. The FAA, ICAO and Boeing are but 3 bodies aware of what goes on via numerous reports submitted.......and nothing.

Some minimal searching on this forum will offer up some behind the scenes truths.

Fly as pax on a VT reg? NEVER.

I personally know a young colleague of mine in Indigo who has privately informed me(on numerous instances,I might add),that a certain Capt.:mad: who was an executive with indigo for quite some time,had quite blatantly asked him and his colleagues to clear their ATP papers and if you can't-"contact this person,and he will do the needful"...with a name and a number scribbled on a piece of paper.
On contact,'this person' turned out to be a very close relative of this Capt.:mad:,who claimed he had amazing 'contact's' with the Dgca and quite openly declared that he and :mad:could help 'generate' marksheets from the Dgca for a fee(of course).
This racket apparantely had been going on since the very inception of the company.
I have a strong feeling that these names will crop up, as and when these fake pilots succumb to basic interrogation.Just a matter of time,i guess.
From my side,I can't confirm the authenticity of all of this,but can use my common sense to make some decent judgements....:)

Seems like old habits/views /prejudices die hard.

Many years ago was idling way an evening listening to various LHR frequencies on my airband and heard PanAM 747 asked to call 'company'
What Pan Am Ops wanted to do was advise the crew of some scheduled changes and after detailing the plans for the FO and FE after their next stop they got onto telling the captian he would be returnign to New York on Air India XXX. To which he replied in best imperious PA captain tones I do not fly on Air India! The Ops officer misheard and repeated the instruction and got ina louder an even more emphatic toe Maam I do not fly on air India -yyou have to find me another route.

Two years later and my BA flight from JFK to London goes technical and the BA custoemr service rep informs me I am rebooked on.......Air India to London. Well I thought if ts not good enough for Pan Am skipper its not good enough for me so I made fuss -not much of one -and got tranfered to TWA instead. So the story gives its own age away but it seems that many years on people still have concerns about flying on Indian airlines.

I have to say that the faked licences and qualifications bit is really very scary, impersonating an airline pilot actually on the flight deck must be one of the harder deceptions to pull off surely?

Begging the question
 

Maybe all this faking and corruption is going on. I don't know, so cannot comment, but my years (and years) tell me that there is no smoke without fire. However, surely all this fascinating "information" so far rather begs the question: if a creature habitually lands on the nosewheel, the question is not "How come that creature was promoted captain?" but "What on earth is such a creature doing on the flight deck in the first place?"

In my year with Biman Bangladesh the levels of graft, sleaze and corruption I saw were staggering.

It surprises me not in the least that unlicensed pilots have thrived in the sub-continent.

BUT, when I consider the one or two pilots that were on the DC10 with Airtours who had 'questionable' hours, I don't see that we can be too quick with finger pointing.

The individuals concerned could not do all that they have done alone, the corruption is quite wide-spread.

4000 pilots' papers under DGCA scanner
 

Inviting your comments on this news item. DGCA is corrupt from head to toe. Looks like at last the new DGCA Chief and Civil Aviation Minister trying to do some work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

March 10, 2011: NEW DELHI: Alarmed at the startling discovery of fake commanders, the civil aviation ministry has ordered a thorough verification of all currently valid pilot licences in the country. "About 4,000 co-pilots and commanders are working with airlines here and their papers are being verified. We have accordingly advised the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)," aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi told TOI on Wednesday, while describing the biggest of its kind drive ever launched in India's aviation sector.

DGCA is learnt to have started the process by first looking into the papers of those who the 1,700-odd pilots with desi airlines who have become commanders by claiming to have passed the mandatory airline transport pilot licence (ATPL) exam conducted by it. All the three cases detected so far have been of fake commanders. DGCA chief Bharat Bhushan has referred the two new cases to the crime branch. "The verification is progressing well," said Bhushan.

Despite a crippling manpower shortage, a crack team in DGCA is expected to finish the process at the earliest. In fact, some changes within the organisation have been made by Zaidi and Bhushan. It is reliably learnt that persons with doubtful credentials have been removed from examination branch and their juniors with a clean reputation have been asked to handle this crucial department.

Industry sources say this kind of malpractice is unlikely to have happened without insider support. "Instead of just cancelling the licence obtained on fake papers that the DGCA's authorised to do, top authorities decided to refer the matter to the police so that the suspected insider role can also be probed. This happened despite resistance from certain quarters within the DGCA who possibly fear that a police probe may lead to their doorstep," said sources.

There's the first oxymoron.

There's another naive and ignorant comment.

Not really if you pay enough to keep them too at bay.

Pilot's Dad:
While I admire your desire it is greatly miscalculated I'm sorry to tell you. What of the many, many pilots who actually did pass the exams in the correct manner? The fact that some of these still haven't the minimal piloting skill to safely occupy a control seat in a heavy jet transport seems to go un-noticed. Will the cesspit of corruption also investigate the ritualized fraudulent line and sim checks / evaluations where countless pilots are passed as standard or satisfactory despite never completing the required profile to fly and pass? Or those who do fail are quickly and illegally placed back in the cockpit (first hand account of this)??

What we see here is a large movement not entirely governed to improve safety standards but coming from those who see this as a way to get a job. Self desire, not industry safety. (See the Sth East Asia forums to see the tone there). Not long ago a "wannnabe" posted how a pilot for AI or Jet had a serious car accident (or something of the like). His post was along the lines of how good it was that another job at that airline was now available.

Still, I trust things do progress and those employed as a direct result of corrupt and negligent means are identified and correctly punished. Then again we must also face realities. One's past is the greatest indicator of the one's future. Removing corruption from the DGCA and AI is like prescribing a lobotomy. It is so inherently part of the the entire system, airline airline culture and network that to remove it leaves an empty shell. (It would still be more productive).

So I say again: NEVER EVER fly as pax on a VT registered aircraft. How much evidence of abhorrent corruption does one need yet people still are willing to put their lives in jeopardy?

Deliberate Extortion That May Lead To Fake Papers
 

@TopTup it's easy to avoid a VT reg flight while flying itnl I guess but what can your do while flying regional? That seems to be the bigger concern as of now since majority of pilots are recruited in the regional and domestic sectors.


Another thing which needs to be seen is that some of these kids may not have actually faked these hours. From what I heard years back from colleagues and candidates who had applied for their new CPLs at that time was that log books and papers were deliberately declared lost by the clerks and other work level officials in order to push the candidates into a corner with the fear of losing their currency (which would take more money to regain as they'd have to go back abroad to attain it) and extorting money out of them for issuing licenses.

When such a system prevails where even the honest are pushed to the edge and people are given the common belief that hard work and procedures don't matter as long as you can " Pay Up ", even those who have worked for it stop doing it, knowing that at the end it's only going to be the money that'll matter. And the incompetent of course are the first ones to grab an opportunity like this.

For all one might know, some of these kids may be of the lot whose papers "were lost" rather deliberately in order to make them pay up even though they might've completed their hours. (at least at an earlier stage of training)

But I also must say that from what I've heard Mr. Nasim Zaidi is actually one of the most honest officials in the aviation sector today with a prime agenda of cleaning up the system. Well I hope what they say is true and the Indian aviation sector ever sees the light of the day.

A380 Jockey

:eek:

I assume India has a higher incidence of aviation accidents than the US, UK, Canada, Australia and so forth?

Completely endemic. That means the corruption is right to the core and is probably deeply entrenched.

Well, I hope this racket becomes exposed sooner than later. The problem with corruption this endemic and entrenched is that it is often quite capable of protecting itself.

Time for the rest of the aviation world to demand and investigation and oversight from ICAO, as it appears India is either reluctant or can't cleant their own skies.

indigo
 

We have been going through this and other threads in detail about indigo and other airlines and fear of flying VT aircraft. All we can say is there are issues but not as they are being blown up. It is easy to blame the system and something needs to be done to clean it up. We believe things are happening and something good will hopefully come out of all this. We are a group of indigo FOs and know the insides of it and would like to highlight the problems that have come up.

Rostering is the major issue. It was supposed to be stable but it is anything but stable. With a rude and unresponsive staff and a corrupt guy at its helm there is little hope. We have regular issues with them and no one is able to resolve them. Flight operations expresses helplessness as it does not come under them though us guys who are pilots are supposed to be part of flight operations are controlled by rostering.:=

We are also leaving because of lack of increase in our salary. We were treated as second class citizens by the company and they gave salary increase to captains only as if we are not part of flying crew. So moment 330 came along a number of us are leaving. We were waiting for an opportunity to leave after the treatment that we get at this airline. :{

We are also very concerned about the negative changes that have taken place and how training and standards are being conducted. With the advent of guys from government airlines the debacle of indigo has started. These guys have brought a decadent culture to indigo. Wasnt destroying the government airline enough that they have come to indigo and started destroying it? It wont be long before indigo goes same way as kf which was their first target. The politics and bhaibhatija culture is in along with these guys. At least as long as pk was there standards were maintained. He was strict but fair. The guys who were trainers that time also followed same practices. Now it is all downhill.

This is india and with right contacts you can do anything. He is now been made a trainer after joining as line pilot in indigo!!! What will he teach us – how not to lower wheels when captain demands as we are not on talking terms with him? Then there is another guy in Chennai. Till pk was there, he was only a line check pilot as pk knew his capabilities. He has now been unleashed as TRE. He is such a creep that he was the only guy who was denied extension by icpa when he was leaving the govt airline!!! And now he will teach us how to be a nuisance in cockpit. We have also heard that two stalwarts in kolkatta are being upgraded to TREs. These two guys were useless as check pilots and as long as pk was there they were not even allowed to do training. Now they are being upgraded to TREs!!! Thank God we are leaving and till we leave we will not have to bear them. Whatever happened to the home grown guys of indigo? It is only chamchagiri that works.

Again where are the good guys and good trainers with whom we learnt flying and enjoyed it too. We hardly see them being upgraded. The training and standards are in the pits and going down by the day. No wonder we are having nose wheel landings and other problems. Recently these guys manoeuvered another lady captain and released her on us. We were hardly bearing the two who have been caught when this another one has been unleashed on us. All because she was good to the standards guy. He has now got his cronies children into indigo. For this he got the induction norms changed. Indigo has suddenly started taking type rated FOs but only from a particular category. You should be child of a government airline commander and should have done type rating from cte. The son-in-law of a indigoTRE has also got a back door entry. This guy tried through normal (CAE) route but was rejected. He has now paid money and got type rating at cte and has been taken and ahead of guys who studied hard and got through cae that time when he was rejected. It seems the standards guy has taken a substantial amount of money to get these guys in. IT PAYS TO HAVE CONTACTS AND MONEY. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. EVERYTHING ELSE CAN BE ARRANGED EVEN IN PRIVATE AIRLINES.:ugh::ugh::ugh:

I have had it with India. In my previous life I worked with offshore teams. It simply never worked. Sick and tired of everything that went wrong there. Culture is just saying yes to everything and then don't deliver. Lies lies lies deceit and so on. This confirms yet again the stereotype of Indian business culture. Simply unreliable.

Forget about the wheels falling off the bus... Its way beyond that.


But just a thought... would the adage "The lunatics are running the asylum" apply to India:ugh::hmm::rolleyes:?

Wow frustration central
 

Dear flap3reverseidle / Flapper Jack!

Did you fail or something??? You sound extremely frustrated!!!!!!! You are basically the kind of pilots that Airlines do not need. When someone makes major changes, you the corrupt babu's dont get their way anymore so you need to create and spread negativity among the other pilots. I also work with Indigo and i am glad someone is throwing out the trash! Do you have proof that this so called "babu" is taking bribes??? r u sure your not "THEE BABU"???Considering the size of your post it seems like your working less and bitching more. You obviously are having a tough time coping with proper working procedures and want "your guy" to come in so that your life is made easier.

Sorry the industry does not work that way! Its not made for Mr.flap3reverseidle, but for the Airline Fraternity. Either be a good professional or leave. Mr. PK cant help you any longer! So move on, cuz he has!

I'm not sure if this has been posted before on PPRuNe, but I think this news item on the BBC from 3 March is very ironic.

BBC News - India anti-corruption chief PJ Thomas forced to resign

indigo
 

flapperjack, touche! touche! touche! we seem to have touched a raw nerve here. Is the truth too painful for you to face?
The whole thing was not about pk or anybody else. We are confident of our training and professionalism and can stand up to anybody as long as they are fair and professional. It does not matter who is promoted or not as long as they have a decent crm and know their stuff. It is the advent of guys with dubious backgrounds who seem to have taken over with no respect for procedures and norms. All kinds of private SOPs are being propogated now by these guys who only believe in politics, groupism, bias and nepotism. they destroyed the government airline first - look at its pathetic state and then they got into kf and look what they did to it. now it seems to be the turn of indigo. for us indigo was our first airline and we got a good professional training that is why the airline looking for 330 pilots has chosen maximum number of us from indigo. indigo just does not appear the same. should someone be not held responsible for directing the two "fake" captains towards this act (as pointed out in another post) and then training them and unleashing them on us. it makes us laugh when someone talks of "fraternity" - The only fraternity known to these guys is of ex govt airline pilots. grow up guys you are no more in the picture and dont carry even one in five domestic passengers.:rolleyes:

I dont know if you even read what you write, but the 4 paragraph long essay has been written by you. Raw nerves are obvious aren't they? Again.. u are the one with the problem and u r the one not facing the truth. And the truth is that u obviously cannot cope with your seniority. Have you checked the persons in questions credentials and experience before you slay them in a public forum? or your just pointing a wild finger and the first person you stop at is the person who gets it from you? Have you personally seen the bribes and contacts? or are u just unhappy you dont have pull in the airline? You obviously need it. Desperately. The fact that you had to mention Mr. Pk's name 10 times obviously means he was your favorite.. and this new person is not. You are the one professing politics, groupism, bias and nepotism. Just cuz you feel left out? This is not high school. If you have a problem why dont you be a grown up and handle it directly. Dont be a teenager and try to destroy the reputation of an airline ands its professionals, who have spent their whole lives building their reputation. If they started kooochi poooing you will you be singing a different tune.... I think you are just starved for attention and need to keep writing rubbish cuz this is the only way you can create politics, groupism, bias and nepotism.

Stop playing the blame game and man up. Be professional and do your job. Either do it well, dont just sit here and whine... There are no shortcuts to experience. So calm down and let the experienced professionals do their job!

As Many As 4500 'Pilots' Under Investigation In Delhi Many Could Be Flying Without Proper Credentials

The government in Delhi, India is investigating as many as 4,500 people who may be flying without proper licenses, including as pilot-in-command for the airline IndiGo.
Air travel has become increasingly popular, particularly among India's burgeoning middle class, and airlines have had difficulty hiring enough pilots to keep up with demand. After two pilots were arrested for license fraud recently, India's Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi has been compelled to open an investigation into credentials held by more than 4,500 people. "I have directed the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) to examine all the licences issued in the past and to establish a procedure for more detailed verification while issuing such licences," Mr Ravi told parliament last week.

The Australian reports that the uncredentialed pilots are only the most recent of India's aviation problems. 57 pilots have been caught under the influence of alcohol on duty in the last two years, but only 10 have been fired. In May, an accident in southern India fatally injured 158 people, and the official investigation cited a "sleepy pilot" as the cause of the crash.
FMI: Government of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation
[email protected]

Well it seems that before they day's flight, expat captains need to ask their first officers if their fraudulent flight papers are current:}.

Can you imagine it... no valid pilots in the entire country:D? I love it... just love it.

And these gabronies flying on fake certificates are demanding that expats submit to medical examinations administered by the Indian Air Force.... what a farce:mad:!

Hey... let's make a deal with the Indian Pilots... they get a valid pilots certificates and expats will submit to Indian First Class Medical Exam.

What do you think? Or... the fake Indian Pilots should be satisfied if expat captains obtain forged medical certificates from the Indian Government.

The situation with pilot licences in India is approaching the classic "if you owe the bank a million dollars and can't repay it, you have a problem - if you owe the bank ten billion dollars and can't repay it, the bank has a problem".

Someone has beaten me to it, but my prediction is that a few spear carriers unfortunate enough not to have family conections will get burned - and the vast majority will, at the stroke of a pen, be declared, magically, to have valid documentation.

Done and dusted, with virtually nothing changed.

7x7
That is the most apt description of what aviation in India faces today.
EVERY FTU in India fudges the books. If the DGCA actually combed through the records and took action, aviation in India will come to a grinding halt.

I am a journalist with an English news channel and recently stumbled across two rackets. One of them now defunct where the perpetrators ran off with money from trainee pilots promising them type rating.
Apparently the ex-racketeer now flies with a reputed airline company in India.

Now, if any of you wish to share info on or off-record... please go ahead an PM me. It could help us clean things up a bit.

Or mail me at [email protected]

OK... here it is...

Expats are being routed out of India via the Indian Medical Inquisition which was perpetrated by SWIP and the Indian Airline Pilot's Union:mad:.

More pilots are being arrested for false airmen certificates. And amongst of those illegals are those hoping for a quick command with the vacancies created by the expats being TMUed by the Indian Air Force Medicos:{.

What that's saying about Karma:oh:?

Today I understand...
 

...all pilots coming from India to Vietnam thinking most is working rather well in Vietnam Airlines.

A bunch of guys interviewing with Flydubai on the 29th and 30th of March. I guess India is either incredible or incredible... I guess it depends on how one views the term incredible.

DGCA's daughter involved too!
 

Ok,here's a new twist to the story.
And this is the Director of Air Safety's own daughter who was employed by Spicejet....!!
So now you know whether the chicken came first of the egg huh..

SpiceJet gives daughter of DGCA officer the boot - The Times of India

Interesting read....:O

When the regulators themselves have vested interest, one can't expect objectivity in their functioning, can we? And that surely compromises aviation safety, forget about regulators ability to stay ahead of the times...

what does an expat medical certificate look like
 

I suspect the problem with forging, is the age of the paper, it must be 1950's paper. and well aged.

but there must be a web site that offers these documents by now.

DGCA yet to IMPROVE iTS FUNCTIONING
 

Pilots have gone to jail, more will follow. A DGCA official is jail, more will follow.
To make sure there is no repeat of the sordid affair, DGCA must:
1. MUST ENSURE TIME BOUND, SPEEDY disposal of all APPLICATIONs received.
2. Not hide behind shortage of Staff--USE the huge money received from Licence, rating and aircraft endorsement applications.
3. Have a WORKING COMPLAINT REDRESSAL SYSTEM.
4. If a DGCA official asks individuals to produce Cerificates beyond those prescibed and displayed as required on their website- he should be promptly & publicly punished for the same.
5. Define Syllabus for each exam.
6. Prescribe specific Reading Text for each subject.
7. Display sample papers on each subject on the website.
8. Have a defined Question bank, which may be updated every 3 or 6 months, followed by due publicity of the same.
IMPLEMENT THE ABOVE AND SEE CORRUPTION DISAPPEAR

from The Times of India
 

"Those who allowed pilots with fake licences should be tried for attempt to murder

Our benighted land of scams is these days witnessing a brand new addition to the ever-growing list – fake pilots. Airline after airline is discovering pilots, flying huge jets with thousands of unsuspecting passengers, without being qualified to do so.

The lid was blown off the scam when one of the largest and fastest growing airlines which recently ordered the largest number of jets from Airbus, realised that its woman pilot touched down on the tarmac a passenger-loaded airplane, on its nose wheel. The aircraft normally lands on its rear set of wheels and then the nose lowers down gently as it rolls on the tarmac. Turns out, the pilot had got the job based on a fake licence, or fake marksheet or both.

It was as if someone had opened the floodgates. Soon, other airlines realised they couldn’t afford to point fingers at anyone, for all of them found themselves afflicted by the same malaise.

The civil aviation ministry and its wing to look after air safety – Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) – have been quick to denounce the ‘discovery’ and have promised the ‘strictest’ possible action against the erring airlines and pilots. Some may consider this sacking laughable, but to me it is infuriating, more so after we realised how these fake pilots have been playing with the lives of thousands of flyers every day with complete connivance of the very people who are there to ensure that they don’t.

Our TV channel Times Now recently exposed a scary nexus between an aviation academy based in Baramati, Maharashtra, and senior officials of the DGCA. The academy – Carver Flying Institute has backing from top Maharashtra politicians. For the record, Baramati is the constituency of politician and union minister Sharad Pawar while the civil aviation ministry, till very recently, was run by Pawar’s right-hand man, Praful Patel.

The channel expose showed how the academy continued to function despite losing its licence even as the unholy politician-DGCA top brass nexus helped untrained and ineligible pilots clear their exams so that they could ferry unsuspecting passengers. Apparently surprise inspections too were carried out at the academy with the crooked babus at DGCA ensuring the surprise element is maintained by informing the academy about it 20 days in advance.

We have heard that the government is sacking/taking action against those involved that includes the DGCA officials, the pilots and perhaps the airlines as well. This is absolutely unadulterated balderdash. What good does sacking a corrupt babu or pilot achieve in this case? ZILCH! These people have toyed with the lives of thousands. This is nothing short of an attempt to murder and they need to be booked under laws that are appropriate under the circumstances, no less.

So far we have been witnessing financial frauds being perpetuated on us. They are bad, no doubt, but they don’t endanger human lives the way this pathetic and scary nexus of corrupt babus, politicians and big airlines does.

And in my view, the fake pilots would be the lowest in terms of culpability. They are desperate for jobs and in a nation where everything is available for a price, they simply want a shortcut without either being qualified or being incapable of performing the job. The real culprits are the babus and the politicians who not just allowed, but actively participated in perpetuating this attempt at mass murder. They are worse than the criminals who roam the streets.

The Indian apex court is currently in an activist mode. I would somehow wish it took cognizance of these incidents too. Not just me, but anyone would agree that the government that is itself responsible for this fraud on its people cannot be trusted with stemming this rot.

And while I am at it, let me extol all of you who feel for the nation to join Anna Hazare on April 5 as he starts an indefinite fast for demanding a people’s anti-corruption law. "

Freedom of the Press in India
 

WOW what to say, someone has certainly stuck his neck out.

Well done.

Qatar
Ehtihad
Gulf Air
Air Arabia
Emirates
All should have thier Indians investigated

chrislamb

Yep, all correct.

Also look at the motivation, as hinted here. Reporter Samiran Saha alludes to former Aviation Minister Prafu Patel's "inexplicable" decisions to over-order aircraft and to give away Air India legacy, profitable routes.

Saha didn't actually state the blindingly obvious and well known (in country) allegations that Patel front-end loaded the contract price of ordered aircraft with the connivance of the manufacturers (the more aircraft ordered the more commission paid), to vastly enrich himself and to fund the political party he owes allegiance to, but also fortuitously, coincidentally and miraculously came into significant FOC equity stakes in the independent airlines that sprang up post relaxed regulation in 1995 (cost of operating/route licences).

To make the subsequent dynamic airline economic activity possible, more warm bodies were required to fly independent airline routes that he now had a conflict of interest stake in. How to do it? Use traditional methods and expedite the flow of "trained" fodder.

What's happened to Patel? What do you think? Promoted, of course. Does life ever change?

Interesting is the fact that from all the copilots who flew with me, not one ever had an interview with the company. Let alone a technical interview.

They all landed straight-in the copilot seat only because of their father’s relation with the company.

One of them did not even know how to buckle his seat belt (Dad was his DGCA instructor/examiner); another one had a CPL ME/IR but never took or passed any ME or IR check-ride, not even an instrument written test. Not to mention another one who continually called his buddies during duty time (presumably to brag about the fact he was on the flight line and, flying!) and even repeatedly texted sms during flight.

Company is not worried: they are “fresh”, and they will learn was I told.

All con artists, or are they? Not smart enough, “Dad” is!

Ah, just read in the news about the daughter of the DGCA Air Safety director. Congrats, indeed.

Incredible India!