AI plum post for Captain with shaky past

New Delhi: Air India (AI) Express has appointed Captain Pawan Arora as its new chief operating officer (COO) despite his earlier removal from key flight safety posts. Arora had been removed from the position of test pilot by the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) as the appointment was found to be irregular. His subsequent appointment as a flight operations inspector (FOI) was also scrapped by the aviation sector regulator.
The DGCA had also revoked his appointment as an A320 instructor with a private airline and as a ground instructor. Arora has been appointed COO of the cash-strapped airline for a salary of R1.2 crore plus perks.
Captain Mohan Ranganathan, an aviation expert and member of the government-appointed Operations Group of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC), had warned AI against appointing Arora.
In a letter to Arvind Jadhav, CMD, AI, Ranganathan had written, “A person with questionable integrity should not be considered for such an important post and is not conducive to safety of an airline, which is just recovering from a major fatal crash.”
21/10/10 Tushar Srivastava/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Air India Budget Oct 2010, NACIL Oct 2010