Committee set up to revamp pilot exam system

The Ministry of civil aviation, in view of the large scale irregularities in the grant of pilot licences, has decided to revamp the examination system. A committee under the chairmanship of director general civil aviation (DGCA) E. K. Bharat Bhushan has been set up to suggest measures for this reform.

The committee, with aviation experts and former bureaucrats as members, will make recommendations to plug loopholes and overhaul the complete examination process, an aviation official said. One of the panel members is Sanat Kaul, formerly India’s representative to the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation organisation.

The DGCA’s problem is that the examination body is headed by engineers and not by people from a flying background. Also there is a tendency to clear very few candidates which then leaves room for lobbying. The candidates who have cleared the exams are then forwarded to the licencing directorate for certification.

Once cleared, a pilot is allowed to fly and be employed with an airline. At these two levels, there is tremendous scope for manipulation, a senior commander employed with a private airline said. Further, many pilots manage to get licences from fly by night schools, based out of Southeast Asian, East European and Latin American countries.

It is very difficult to verify skills and credentials of these pilots, the commander disclosed. In the meantime, DGCA on Tuesday revoked licence of another pilot for fudging his marksheet. His certificates and marksheet were found to be missing from the original file, revealed official sources.

The police has been asked to enquire and arrest the fake pilot who had obtained his CPL by submitting a fudged marksheet, a DGCA source said. According to former DGCA H. S. Khola, the best way to reform the system is to computerise all records so that there is no scope or need for hard fake copies or originals. When the offence is serious, the pilot should not be sent on correctional training but be debarred for life (provided for in the Aircraft Act).

It was first reported on February 14 that there was a serious problem with Capt Parminder Kaur Gulati’s landing technique and she risked passengers’ lives by landing plane on its nose. Further Digital Flight Data recorder analysis (DFDR) had revealed that last 15- 20 landings of the pilot were against the recommended guidelines.