India revokes licences of 14 'fake pilots'

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The licences of 14 pilots have been revoked by India's aviation authorities as they were allegedly proved to be flying with fake documents.

A police probe found a flying club had issued "fake records" of their training sessions, India's civil aviation chief, Bharat Bhushan, told the BBC .

Earlier this month the licences of seven pilots were cancelled because of fake certificates.

The licences of 4,000 pilots are being checked for irregularities.

Mr Bhushan said that the police had discovered that a flying club in the northern state of Rajasthan had issued "fake records" of training sessions for 14 pilots.

"Based on the police complaints, we have revoked the licences of 14 commercial pilots," he said.

There have been a series of scandals involving Indian airline pilots recently - even though the country has a relatively good safety record.

Earlier this month authorities said that they were taking action against 57 pilots who had reported for duty drunk over the past two years.

Over the same period there have also been reports of pilots falling asleep while flying and pilots fighting with air crew.

The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says the massive growth in India's aviation sector over recent years has presented serious regulatory challenges to the authorities.

India now has the world's fourth largest number of domestic fliers after the US, China and Japan.

In China, 200 pilots were found with fake papers in 2008, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12857742

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Fake pilot license scam: Senior DGCA official sacked
NEW DELHI: The controversial director of air safety at the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), R S Passi, has been relieved of his duties, a senior official said on Tuesday.

"He (Passi) has been relieved of his duties... this is an internal arrangement and has nothing to do with the ongoing controversy," a senior DGCA official said.

Passi was joint director, air safety, of the northern region at the DGCA.

"This action was taken around two to three days back," the official said.

The official refrained from commenting any further on any pending action against Passi, who is alleged to have helped his daughter Garima Passi to attain a fake pilot license.

Passi's daughter was a pilot with a Low Cost Carrier (LCC) Spicejet and was sacked as she was alleged to have fudged her documents for attaining a pilot's licence.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 024343.cms