New Delhi: At a time
when fake pilot licences are giving sleepless nights to the aviation
sector, the civil aviation ministry has ordered an audit of the 40-odd
flying schools in the country and made it clear no leniency would be
shown.
"The issue is very serious. All the flying schools in the country will
be audited and no leniency will be shown to anybody. We will go very
strongly by abiding by the laws and every angle would be looked into,”
said Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi.
There are about 40 flying schools in the country, of which over 12 to 13
are run by the government, and the rest by private bodies. These
institutes allegedly provide fake flying hours to the students for extra
money. Instead of actually training the aspiring pilots for 100 hours,
many institutes train them only for 75 hours, and by this they make
better profit and extra money.
Checks are also being introduced for students going to countries where
manipulations in flying schools are known to be rampant. The airlines
say they already double check the pilots coming from countries like the
Philippines, where flying schools provide flying hours certificates
without actually training the pilots.
24/03/11
Business Standard