Tests stare at 4,500 pilots

New Delhi: More than 4,500 aspiring pilots will face a battery of "stringent” tests over the weekend as India’s civil aviation regulator tries to make the skies "safer” following the recent scandal over the award of pilot licences.The tests will be conducted by the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA), which has been shaken by the revelations about a dozen-odd pilots with fake degrees and fudged flying-hour certificates, and about nepotism in clearing pilots with dubious test records.The investigations have till now shamed two top DGCA officials — deputy director-general A.K. Sharan and director (air safety) R.S. Passi — whose children earned their pilot’s licences in a dubious manner.But this could just be the tip of the iceberg: at least nine other middle-level to senior officials are being investigated on how their relatives secured licences to become either airline pilots or engineers. The son of one of the top officials under investigation is employed as a first pilot by India’s largest private airline.What makes the probe more complicated is the theft of documents that could have nailed insiders. Files relating to at least two of the pilots under investigation are missing.The irony is, the DGCA’s exams for new pilots were considered among the "toughest” globally — one needs to score 70 per cent just to pass — till a dangerously faulty landing last January by an Indigo pilot, Parminder Kaur Gulati, unleashed the probe.28/04/11 Jayanta Roy Chowdhury/The Telegraph

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Tests stare at 4,500 pilots