Ensure safe air travel

IF you go to Google and key in the words "Fake pilot licences," in just 0.18 seconds you get 2,690,000 results. Here are a few sample headings of the last two months: (a) Crime branch probes officials’ role in fake pilot licence case (15-3-2011); (b) Fake pilot licence scam: Government orders audit of all flying schools (23-3-2011); (c) Two more fake pilots on the run, licences being probed (15-3-2011); (d) Senior DGCA official sacked (19-4-2011); Two more arrested in fake pilots’ licence scam (5-5-2011).

As one reads on, one gets nauseated by what is happening in the country and how passenger safety is being compromised with impunity. What is most ironic is that if you go on to the website of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), you will see a prominent display of its concern for aviation safety, through a document titled "State Safety Programme, India, November 2010." Below it, you will also see the "India Safety Policy," which proclaims: "  ........The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will ensure the highest level of safety in the Indian aviation system. Mindful of India’s State Safety Programme (SSP), the DGCA will maintain an integrated set of regulations and activities aimed at enhancing aviation safety.  The DGCA will implement proactive, and as far as possible, predictive strategies encouraging all stakeholders/service providers to understand the benefits of a safety culture, which should be based on an inclusive reporting culture…" One does not know whether to laugh or cry, seeing this.

The Delhi police has so far arrested 11pilots, three DGCA officials, one middleman and two forgers in connection with the scam. The Jaipur police in turn has arrested two pilots for providing fake documents to get the licence.

Two more pilots and a middle man are still absconding and the Delhi police says that it has cracked down on four modules supplying forged marksheets to help these people procure pilot licences.  

As they probe deeper into the 40 flying schools in the country and investigate into the licences of pilots, I am sure there will be many more arrests. 

As slowly, the enormity of the entire racket unfolds, one is thunderstruck by the dire consequences of having untrained or unqualified pilots fly you around. The case of the Indigo Airline pilot who, on January10, had used the nose wheel instead of the rear wheels for touchdown, thereby putting the lives of passengers in jeopardy, is just one example. 

According to reports, investigations into this incident brought to light the fact that she had used fake papers to get her permit to fly, and in the last couple of years, she had made several bad landings. I am sure if one were to investigate the flying records of all those pilots who had used forged marksheets or shown false number of flying hours to get their licences, many such incidents would come to light.

After all, the very requirement of certain minimum standards of knowledge and experience is meant to ensure that the aircraft and the passengers are in safe hands. By overlooking this most important criteria, the DGCA officials have lost all credibility.

We have been familiar with spurious medicines, fake cosmetics, counterfeit motor spare parts, paints, electric bulbs and about a wide network of fake motor driving licences, too. But fake licences of pilots was something that even somebody with the wildest of imaginations could not have thought of.  

A driver with a fake motor driving licence may cause an accident and kill several people, but an unqualified pilot flying an aircraft could kill hundreds. The reports uncovering this racket in the last two months show how corruption has permeated every sector, compromising in its wake, consumer safety.

In fact this whole episode calls for not just a thorough probe, but an independent regulatory mechanism, consisting of persons with experience and impeccable records of honesty, to oversee safety in the aviation sector. We need to have a regulator who will ensure that at no time is safety compromised. Only that will bring back consumer confidence in the aviation industry’s ability to fly them safely.

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