Pune: A A high-level inquiry conducted by Air India and Jet Airways, two of India’s largest airliners, along with the aviation regulatory body has indicted two top AI trainers and two Jet examiners for fudging simulator training records of the State carrier’s pilots.
An internal probe has established that senior-ranking trainers logged eight hours of simulator training when they had actually trained pilots only for two hours, seriously compromising the pilots’ competence and thereby jeopardising passenger safety.
The violation was reported at the Jet Airways simulator facility in Mumbai. Air India, despite having two Airbus 330 aircraft, doesn’t have a simulator and trains its pilots at the Jet facility.
Jet has grounded the two examiners —Captain PP Singh and Captain Shiraz Contractor — and Air India has initiated a vigilance inquiry against Captain RS Dhillon, who is the officiating director of training, and Captain HY Samant, who is the officiating director of operations.
The officials are paid a minimum of Rs 10,000 per hour of training. Insiders say eight more people are under the scanner and suspect offenders have been routinely fudging training records.
Aviation experts said the practice was a gross violation of safety norms as simulators are the only places where a pilot learns to deal with emergencies.
29/11/12 Bipin Kumar Singh/Pune Mirror
