Indian skies safe despite 'fake' pilots

New Delhi -It began with a dangerous landing and has resulted in 16 pilots being sacked. India's fake flying licence scam posed a severe challenge to the country's airline safety regulator.
But in an interview with AFP, the head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said a crackdown on pilots that involved surprise and random checks had successfully identified the fraudsters.
"Now we are doing thorough checks of all the licences that are being issued. We have left the scandal behind us," said EK Bharat Bhushan. "We will do whatever it takes to clean-up the entire system."
He also said Indian skies were safe despite the evidence of qualification fraud - a rampant problem found in other sensitive areas in corruption-plagued India, including medicine.
"It is certainly not unsafe to fly with an Indian carrier," he said. "If you look at our records, it's not bad. There haven't been a lot of accidents.
"We maintain close surveillance over both airplanes and airports."
But questions remain over whether the under-resourced DGCA is capable of probing deep enough into a problem that has caused profound anxiety for travellers in India.
02/12/11 news24.com

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2011