New Delhi: With reports of pilot schools
fudging flying hours in their log books to help candidates get
licences, civil aviation regulator DGCA has set up three teams
to carry out full-fledged audits of 40 such institutions
across the country from next week.
The teams of officials and independent experts would begin
inspection from April 18 and submit their reports within three
months, official sources said on Monday.
So far, 13 persons, including five pilots and three DGCA
staffers, have been arrested on charges of using forged
marksheets, fudged flying hours and related documents to
procure flying licenses from the Directorate General of Civil
Aviation (DGCA).
A Chief Training officer of a Rajasthan flying club was
earlier arrested for fudging the log books of some pilots.
During their audit drive, the DGCA teams will verify the
logged flying hours with the log books of air traffic
controllers, where the flying had taken place in controlled
environment.
They will also check the consumption of aviation fuel by
the flying schools and their fuel bills to see if they match
the flying hours clocked by their students.
DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan, who briefed the three teams
of officials and experts on Monday, has favoured a complete revamp
of the pilot licencing process.
Last week, he held a meeting of officials of all flying
schools to put together an action plan to tackle the problem
of fudging of documents to obtain licences.
The DGCA has decided to computerise the entire process of
examination and documentation of the entire pilot licencing
process.
On foreign flying schools, Bhushan had said the DGCA has
decided not to take the licences issued by them on face value
and refer back to these institutes and local aviation
regulatory authorities to authenticate the certification,
flying hours and other documentation of a foreign licence
holder.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 00:27