M A I N   N E W S

4 more held in pilot licence scam
A senior official of the DGCA among those arrested
Vibha Sharma/TNS

New Delhi, March 26
The crime branch of the Delhi Police has arrested four persons, including a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and a pilot, in connection with the “fake pilot licence scam”.

The arrested official, Pradeep Kumar, is an assistant director in the Directorate of Aircraft Engineering. The other arrests include a pilot, Pradeep Tyagi, and two touts, Lalit Jain and Pankaj Jain, DCP (Crime) Ashok Chand said. Besides, the crime branch is on the lookout for nine suspects in the case. It is also probing if any other pilot was involved in this racket of procuring flying licences without acquiring adequate number of flying hours or clearing written exams. The Mumbai crime branch has identified one of the two touts who helped many pilots forge marksheets.

Sources say Pradeep Kumar is expected to spill the beans as he is understood to have been the key player in the chain that helped those aspiring for CPL (Commercial Pilot Licence) and higher ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot Licence) by expediting clearance of papers of pilots engaged by Pradeep Tyagi and Lalit Jain by charging money. So far, 10 persons are under the scanner while the authorities are checking the licences of hundreds others.

The issue assumed worrying proportion after pilots Parminder Kaur Gulati, Meenakshi Singhal (both IndiGo), JK Verma (Air India) and Swaran Singh Talwar of MDLR, Syed Habib Ali and Bhupender Singh were found to have obtained their ATPL (on the basis of forged documents). Besides, two SpiceJet pilots were arrested for over-logging flying hours.

Civil Aviation Minister Vyalar Ravi has promised stern action against the guilty.

Notably, the fudging of flying hours is done at the level of flying schools. A person is eligible to fly a commercial aircraft only after completing 200 hours of flying during the training. However, the 14 pilots whose licences were revoked had not flown the mandatory hours and were alleged to have got fake certificates from a Rajasthan training institute. Similar cases of over-logging have been reported from other flying clubs as well, including from the one in Hisar.

Meanwhile, sources say that the DGCA’s examination cell was deliberately established away from the main office near the Safdarjung airport so that there was no influence on the examination branch. The standalone system, however, worked for the benefit of those wanting to misuse it.

Interestingly, a few years ago candidates had the option of filling the OMR sheet either with pencil or pen. Those who repeatedly failed left their OMR sheet blank or used a pencil so that wrong answers could be erased and replaced with correct answers. After objections were raised, the DGCA decided that answersheets could not be left blank and should be marked with ballpoint pen.

This time the problem of “failed” candidates was taken care of by forged marksheets. The arrested pilots were believed to have paid touts Rs 10 to 12 lakh for getting the fake marksheet. “Computers are not linked between the two DGCA offices to ensure they are not tampered with. This worked to the benefit of those working against the system,” sources say, adding the “first culprit was obviously the person who issued the fake marksheet. However, the entire exercise cannot be completed without the help of officials in the issuing department”.

However, the corruption cycle doesn’t end here, the problem also existing at the flight inspection directorate (FID) where licences are inspected, issued and renewed. There are around 10,000 CPL holders and about 4,000 ATPL holders, each of whom has to visit the DGCA at least once every six months either for licence or medical renewal or endorsements of the type of aircraft on their licence.

Pilots claim that even if they have cleared all their papers and have all documents in place, they have to shell out money even to get the initial licence on time.