12:50
Reporter
India is reviewing the licenses of all of the more than 4,000 pilots working there for "irregularities," a move that comes amid charges that more than a dozen pilots used falsified credentials for their jobs, the BBC reports.
The story, which traces back to a January flight incident, has been dramatically unfolding in recent weeks. The latest development came this morning when Indian aviation authorities revoked "the licenses of 15 commercial pilots for exaggerating their flying time during training," The Associated Press reports.
AP adds "police have arrested four pilots with fake aviation licenses in the past two weeks, leading to concerns about unqualified pilots endangering the lives of thousands of travelers. Opposition lawmakers have accused the government of failing to prevent corruption in licensing."
AFP writes "India's fake pilot scandal (first) began unraveling when a female captain landed her packed airliner on the nose instead of the rear wheels as she touched down in the holiday hotspot of Goa."
That pilot, Parminder Kaur Gulati, worked for rapidly expanding Indian discount carrier IndiGo. After being investigated for the Goa incident, she was fired and eventually arrested for flying with falsified qualifications. It turns out that the 38-year-old pilot had several similar incidents on her record, but they had been kept from airline regulators, according to the Toronto Star.
AFP says "the case set alarm bells ringing for passengers anxious about the idea of a semi-trained fraud being responsible for their lives, and for airline bosses, who have been hiring crew at a furious pace in recent years. It also cast a spotlight on a familiar problem in India, where corruption is widely seen as on the rise: most things, even qualifications for highly skilled jobs, can be bought at a price."
That's apparently not the only ongoing concern in Indian aviation.
Posted in: Indian pilots accused of faking credentials
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