After blaming the pilots and excusing itself, it is time the DGCA had a long look at its own faults
This fiasco with the fraudulent pilots is becoming ridiculous, with more pilots being caught with forged documents every day. It?s not merely a problem of a few scoundrels providing fake marksheets and flight logs to get around some rules, but a systemic flaw eating away at the core of the system that trains pilots in India. And, as in most such cases, the rot starts at the top?in this case, the DGCA and the ATC. Many flying schools have fudged their log books to show that their aspiring-pilot students have clocked more flying hours than they really have. People in the know say this is because the ATC does not do its job as a regulator of these schools properly. In America, when a flying school deems a student worthy, it asks the Federal Aviation Administration to send an official to test the student. In India, in many flying schools, no official is sent either to test the student or to verify his/her flight log. Coupled with the tremendous demand for pilots, this has led to everybody concerned cutting corners. This problem is endemic in engineering and medicine, as well, with increasing numbers of engineers and doctors being caught with fake degrees.
Obviously, this breeds a disregard for professionalism that has made itself apparent in this scandal, as well as the fact that a shocking 56 pilots failed alcohol tests in the last two years. Though none were allowed to enter the cockpit, only 10 were fired, many getting lenient suspensions. The question that should be asked is, how many surgeons would be let off so lightly if they arrived on duty drunk?
Pilots, like doctors, are in command of hundreds of lives, the least the DGCA and ATC can do is to maintain a minimum level of professionalism. Preferably by starting with themselves.