Fake pilots. This Helps To Explain A Lot Of Things...
 

NATION
India Today NATION Story
Rajasthan: Fraud pilots busted

Rohit Parihar
November 13, 2010
Updated 00:00 IST


Rahul Yadav, a pilot with Indian Airlines who claims he has 1,000 flying hours with the country's official carrier, made the worst landing of his life on October 9. The 25-year-old cruised into jail when he was held by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on charges of getting a commercial pilot's licence (CPL) with forged documents that show him having flown 200 hours when he has actually done only 22.


The Rajasthan state flying school at Sanganer near JaipurYadav, whose father is an official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), is only one of 14 rogue pilots. The DGCA gave Yadav his CPL on the basis of documents submitted by the Rajasthan State Flying School at Sanganer near Jaipur. The school, though closed for two years now, is being investigated in 14 cases-India Today has the names-where students were falsely certified to having flown as many as 200 hours on single-engine Cessna 152 aircraft, including cross-country flying from places where the aircraft never landed.

While similar cases have been reported from Haryana's Hisar Flying club, Additional Director General of Police Ajit Singh Shekhawat, who heads the ACB, has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the possibility of a national-level racket. "The fraud has shocked us with the ease with which the lives of passengers have been put at risk," he says. The CBI has since started investigations and the scandal is expected to spread to other states.

Another young aspirant, Nidhi Vashist, became a 'pilot' by allegedly paying Rs 11 lakh. Her logbook displays 169 flying hours from the Jaipur flying school and the remaining from Karnal, Hisar and Patiala. Once she got her CPL, Vashist got a twin-engine flying completion certificate from the Philippines and applied for a licence from the DGCA. The DGCA, however, got suspicious when it found a solo flying entry when it should have been with another pilot. Upon inquiry, the centre denied having issued the certificate. This was last year when the Philippines faced many reports about such frauds, leading to a crackdown by the authorities.

Vashist alleged that Mahendra Kumar Chaudhary, chief flying instructor at the Jaipur school, had got her the twin-engine certificate for money. Vashisht demanded her money back and when Chaudhary refused, she went to the police. Chaudhary then issued two cheques for the entire amount to 'settle the matter', which bounced. Vashist then complained to the ACB. A cross-check with air maintenance garage, air traffic control (ATC), fuel records and logbook entries revealed that she actually flew for just 22 hours for which the fee was deposited. "Surprisingly, we found thatthe chief flying instructor of Hisar, Mahavir Singh Beniwal, had also certified her arrival, which points to a bigger and organised criminal activity," says Shekhawat. An arrest warrant has been issued against Beniwal.

Yadav was accorded a similar fake flight in March 2007. In his case, Chaudhary did not even enrol him for the 22 hours that he possibly actually flew. Yadav later did a 50-hour flying course from Canada, which is being looked into as well. Chaudhary has been identified as the brain behind the fake certification racket in Jaipur with the roles of executive and supervisory officers also being examined. He has been arrested twice and bailed out quickly but faces more cases. There have been instances when the ATC recorded 36 flights taking off but the flying instructor showed 178 for the same period. Chaudhary's counsel Ashu Singh refused to comment.

A certificate of certain hours of flying makes one eligible for enrolling at flying schools abroad. "It is necessary to investigate all flying licences issued in India, including those given on the basis of training in India or abroad," says Shekhawat.

The DGCA's certification system needs to be looked into to ascertain whether it makes regular visits and checks to ensure whether a flying school is adhering to given norms. It is surprising that flying data which is maintained at many places manually is not linked via a computer network, making it easy for it to be altered without being detected.

Investigators suspect several dimensions of fraud involving deliberate maintenance of shoddy records at various levels. Most of the 14 candidates identified so far are currently employed with various government and private airlines. The impunity with which rules were compromised raises serious doubts about the DGCA's supervising system as well as the recruitment procedures most airlines follow. With even co-pilots supposed to play a crucial role, the scam may make flying in India more dangerous than it already is.

Yes, well

Fake Swedish pilot Thomas Salme flies Air One jets for 13 years | Mail Online

Or Thomas Pelazza in Italy

And probably few others around Europe and USA;)

Well...
 

You're not serious about that, right?

India Today reports about an endemically corrupt system, not exceptions like this Sweden or Italian guy (by the way, they were good pilots and had shown habilities enough to pass the check rides, which are taken seriously in EU).

How many fake pilots are still flying at large endangering people in India? How many of them will be ever caught?
Do not compare oranges with aligators.:ugh:

...and how many of these potential murderers are flying internationally?

No, you are all wrong on this.

These cheats have passed the DGCA military medical, so they will be superbly fit, therefore safe. :)

Same old story as long as certificates have been issued, but different names and location.

Corruption in India? Unbelievable!! Next thing, you're going to be telling me there is corruption in China and Indonesia... not to mention Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and the entire African continent.

Also a reminder of why Flight used to be a far better read than it is today.

G

All a bit worrying, particularly as at the time of writing the next post up on this forum is about the TSA reducing security search criteria for pilots, presumably on the premise that they are beyond reproach and properly documented...

Must remember that; an 'agile style' with official paperwork. Excellent, I think I'll adopt that myself :E.

They probably got the idea from Ramjet Singh....

That's called Nostalgia Genghis :)

The only real surprise here of course is that DGCA operated due diligence. Now that is a real surprise. Cor blimey me.

Fake pilots?
 

Aaaa......in KAL we have a lot expat captains with fake ratings trying their luck! Fake command hours too in dodgy charter and freight operations.
Leonardo Di Caprio put to shame here; these fellas' acting is much better over here!

superfit? realy but the known how to fly?

Irony my friend....

I posted previously, and stand by it, that I will NEVER sit as pax on a VT registered aircraft. That IS NOT to say all pilots under that reg are poor, but the likelihood (percentage wise) that part of the crew (pilots and FA's) that are well below par is overwhelming. This is from my personal experience at AI as a 777 TRE/TRI.

Corruption exists in many aviation sectors and countries. We / the traveling public need to use common sense to decide which aircraft they will fly on and which they won't. Through no fault of their own it is the unscrupulous public in such countries that need protection.

In this example of kids with 22 hours creating a log book to show 200 hrs seems to pass internal license checks. If true then, WOW! We have a true aviation savant! Or, perhaps that/those TRE/TRI's need to be stripped of their damn licenses as well.

The FAA, JAA, etc have been sent numerous reports about what goes on at, for example, Air India yet they seem to choose to do nothing. Who or what is the real evil then?

Check out Ernest Gann's 'Fate is the Hunter'. Nothing new under the sun.

TopTup

You know why no one from the "FAA, JAA etc., has done nothing?? They are too scared.

Not one person from these "authorities" that I am aware, has had the b:mad:s to actually stand up and say how stupid it is putting flight deck crew, through the same treatment as passengers at secuirty for E.G.. Yes I believe that to be a safety issue also.

So who is going to risk his/her nice little number job by opening up a can of worms, with the resulting repercussions down the line? No one!!

Preflight Tips to check if a pilot is a real pilot
 

Example

Fully Employed NSOP B200 Commercial Pilot with about 300 hours or less:

• does not know how to check if the aircraft door is closed & locked,
• does not know [if] there are fire extinguishers in the B200 cockpit and/or cabin (even though one is under his seat),
• does not know how to buckle his seat belt shoulder harness (says he never used it before),
• et cetera, et cetera.

NB: the B200 aircraft is the ONLY twin engine (multi engine) aircraft this particular pilot has ever flown. He presumably trained for and obtained his twin engine pilot license in a B200 aircraft [only]. Not to mention, his father is a B200 DGCA instructor & examiner. Go figure!

So, who's your daddy?
 

Would any one in the "know" care to confirm / deny that the daughter of the chief inspector of flying (HYS) at the esteemed DGCA was, after several attempts, unable to clear the DGCA's written exams. So, the DGCA came up with the unique rule allowing Indian nationals to fly domestically - in India - on their foreign license! Cool!!!