The pigsty that is civil aviaton in India

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The pigsty that is civil aviaton in India (Part I)​

March 28, 2011 05:11 PM |
Veeresh Malik

Some years ago, a Tehelka journalist suffered jail for trying to expose the corruption within the civil aviation establishment. Today, that’s unlikely to happen. There’s a lot more than meets the eye in the matter of fake pilot licences and the media must ask deeper questions about the goings-on in the civil aviation departments

No reportage on the fake pilot certification and licensing scam can be really honest and legitimate if it, in the first instance, does not salute and acknowledge the stellar role played by Outlook and subsequently Tehelka journalist Kumar Badal in exposing this whole business of corruption and decay in the rancid and putrid mess that is called the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA. This was in the course of 2003 and 2004, and if people are under the impression that forgery and fraud in the civil aviation sector is a new phenomenon, then they are really living in la-la land.

For his efforts in this sting-among others-poor Mr Badal had to spend six months and then some more in jail and is still, from all accounts, battling the after-effects. One dared not speak against the establishment too much, even as recently as seven-eight years ago; the establishment simply trampled over you; that was the message then. But in this day and age, we can stand outside DGCA (less than two km from where I live, which is important, as the rest of this article will reveal), and bay for the blood of the corrupt, and all they (DGCA) can do is to request people not to panic!

There is no credibility with anybody at DGCA-from the security guard outside, to the highest authorities inside-to now pretend that they did not know what has been going on for decades. The fact that licences could be bought and exams passed without even being present has been the case since at least the late 70s, and I can vouch for this. That worse things happens in other aspects of DGCA's work, is also a fact, which people like Capt Gopinath of Deccan Aviation have mentioned more than once.
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As a part-time hobby motoring correspondent, who also flew a lot in connection with my day job, I often wondered about the relative safety between travelling by road and flying by air, and I considered flying to be safer. Despite airport security officials-who became friends over the years-giving me horror stories on what they knew about skill-sets and capabilities of people in the cockpit, I always discounted their views. There was one account about domestic aviation pilots from certain airlines that compared them to and referred to them as "Blue Line/Red Line drivers", after the colour of their aircraft. Still, I stood up for the inherent safety in our skies.

The tipping point came in, or around 2007/2008, when far too many episodes and incidents in civil aviation were not just brought to my notice, but also involved me as a hapless passenger stuck in a seat somewhere in the airplane.

As background, way back in the late 70s, I had this vision of acquiring certification for land, water and air operations (in the Merchant Navy then, I had a driving licence that enabled me to take part in motorsports too, and I wanted to graduate from gliding to power flying).

I never took the power flying training further, because even in those days the extent of corruption involved was tremendous-fudging logbooks was the least of it. Since I was trying to do this as a hobby, I actually wanted to fly. But it just became too complicated and skewed. The whole system was geared towards fudging logbooks and moving people up the system as rapidly as possible.

So, I learned a wee bit, and then went back to sea. However, the basics of flying, like the basics of sailing and driving/riding, never leave you, and the ABC of flying, which is EFG, and in reverse GFE, is something one always keeps an eye and ear open for.

But there were more than a few who were flying at Delhi's Safdarjung Airport in those years who went on to become qualified and licenced pilots. Some of them are, or were right on top in the airline business. And they are flying planes with you and me onboard, as well as possibly passing judgment on those who have been caught, all the while trying to pass the buck. Which senior person in which airline in India can honestly say that she or he did not know this was happening?

To take this essay further, I was flying a lot as a passenger in the years between 1999 and 2009, the glory years in which India's civil aviation really took off. And I just happened to be on some spectacular -ups; the best or worst being the 9W flight, operated by a leading politician's son who later on went on to become a reality television prima donna, which almost went off the smaller runway at Mumbai, and an off-duty IAF pilot was sitting next to me giving me a running commentary all the way down.

I was also at Pune Airport, but not on the aircraft, when his girlfriend, later on wife, and now ex-wife, did an excellent low-level flypast over the runway to the amazement of all present, and then came back to land, only to roll past the point where other airplanes stopped.

I was also on board one of the earlier Airbus-321 flights operated by Indian Airlines, when we had such a hard landing at Delhi that the aircraft was pulled out for weeks after that. And as for my favourites, the small CRJs operated then by Air Sahara, I cannot write enough about some of the cowboys and cowgirls doing their stuff up front, and the major issues with pressurisation and aircraft maintenance, as well as fake spare parts that they reportedly had. It has not been said, but it is known, that the Air Sahara training flight crash at Delhi was due to fake spare parts that caused the rudder to move the other way. It is not just the licences of pilots that are fake, you see?

So, what would you do if the scheduled passenger aircraft you flew on went through some rather dangerous episodes, with you on board? The choices, as one who has been more than an interested air passenger for decades, are broadly in two categories:

1) The aircraft, crew and passengers survive the incident, everybody curses a bit; the passengers soon forget as they shove each other to get off the plane, and the cockpit and cabin crew may or may not make a report about the incident.

2) The aircraft, crew and passengers do not survive the incident, and since dead men and women tell no tales, the episode itself gets buried under mountains of paper and inquiry commission reports that may or may not see the light of day.

In between somewhere are the episodes and incidents where somebody takes things up seriously, by filing a written complaint, or is one of the few people to survive an incident in which many others have died.

Surprisingly, the survivors are usually so glad to be alive, that they simply do not follow up with the airline or the authorities. I personally know two such cases. This is also because "advice" given to them is that they better not make waves, or there could be a big question mark over the compensation due to them. Whether it was the survivors from the Alliance Air crash (in Patna), the Air India Express crash (in Mangalore), the Jet Airways crash (in Indore), or even the old Airbus 320 Indian Airlines crash (in Bangalore), one has not heard of survivors seeking accountability or answers.

Likewise, for survivors of heavy landings or such other incidents, the "system" at the DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is designed to prevent queries, and to provide cover-ups to protect their own-in all cases. There is simply no documented way that you as a passenger can file a complaint, let alone expect a response to a complaint that you have as an individual, or a group of people, against an airline.

The truth is, once again, that the rot in the civil aviation business is totally top down. The only way the MoCA or DGCA can even attempt to try to fix things is by coming clean and admitting that there has been a total garbage-driven decay of the system for decades now, and that they will start looking closely at licences issued not just five years ago, but also at all those who have valid licences issued to them at any time in the past.

After all, why punish only defenceless juniors, when it is much worse at the top? The sanctimonious responses by DGCA officials, hoping against hope that this too shall pass, is not a solution that will work in this day and age.

Because, increasingly, there is no way that the establishment can throw us into jail for taking on the head pigs. And the other animals in the farm and barn are not going to keep quiet this time around. (ref: "Animal Farm")
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More than just the specific issue of corruption at DGCA, there is the larger issue that the media has a responsibility-they can and should work better and smarter to change the system. Instead of taking everything that anybody at DGCA (or anywhere else) says as the absolute truth, for example, we need to move out and re-check facts.

For example, how many senior pilots would stand scrutiny of their past record in the same way as the current juniors are being subjected to-it's an issue that got Badal into jail. Of course, that doesn't happen anymore.

And to round off, here is the text of the letter to the editor of Outlook that I wrote eight years ago, in this context, on Kumar Badal being sent to jail:

Kumar Badal's Jail Diary (February 3) captured on one page the essence of being a state guest in India. It would remind people of their experiences with state systems of correction in the days before the Indian media could really adopt freedom and dignity and nobody would have had the guts to even discuss such matters. We pigs may not have rights, we pigs may have to wait silently in queues, but nobody has been able to exterminate us pigs or prevent our piglets from being the most difficult creatures to tame or catch. And some of us pigs will always slip through. —Veeresh Malik, New Delhi

The pigsty that is civil aviaton in India (Part I) - Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine

 

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The pigsty that is civil aviaton in India (Part II)​

March 29, 2011 03:35 PM |
Veeresh Malik

The next time you take a flight, demand photocopies of licences, insurances, minimum equipment list and airworthiness documents to satisfy yourself that it’s safe to fly. Else, just walk off the aircraft. It’s the only weapon air travelers have to make a reasoned argument about deficiencies in airlines. And we have a responsibility to try and clean this mess

It is not amazing anymore what a weekend with some cricket can do to divert attention from real issues in India. Be it corruption scams, energy crisis, water shortage, or the latest on pilots with fake licences generated through methods used by much-maligned auto-rickshaw drivers. Actually, at least the
auto-rickshaw drivers are often honest about things, and now and then seem to also be part of attempts to improve or fix the system-as many of us would have observed by the slogans and couplets painted on their vehicles.

Have we ever seen any such attempts on airplanes? No way. Fancy in-flight magazines aside, nothing. The idea is-don't make noise. Mainstream media will not make a noise-airlines are among their largest advertisers, and besides, all those free seats and upgrades mean a lot too. Airline employee unions will not make noise-too many of their friends and family members want to be pilots, I guess,by any means possible. Airlines themselves will not make a noise-the idea is to simply remain technically "airworthy" and the insurance companies will look after the rest, and as for reputation, a new colour scheme as well as "re-branding" is good for everybody if an incident should occur.

And aircraft manufacturers, will they make a noise about their planes being flown by auto-rickshaw driver incarnates? No way! They have to-right you are-sell more planes. As simple as that. That the airline manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, have been concerned about the issue of fake and even sub-standard pilots in and around India, has been open knowledge for some time now.

So now, time for airlines, manufacturers and their employees to go in for "noise abatement procedures", a process which we know airlines are good at. Meanwhile, a few junior to mid-level officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will apparently carry the can; some more sacrifices shall be made to the Gods of Lucre, and life will go on. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will be prevailed upon not to place India on their blacklist (again), as India packs a punch there, and the "flying schools" will re-invent themselves.

And the head of the DGCA has the nerve to call this an "aberration". That's really, really, rich. Noisily rich.

The "noise" in Delhi this weekend has been all about the Mohali cricket match. And the attention has all been towards a summit on "luxury", which for those who go deeper into these things, is a desperate attempt by the purveyors of expensive beads and baubles to try and desperately recover from the sudden drop in sales in Japan and China-one due to the tsunami and the other due to a change in spending patterns. Cricket is cricket, in India, so that's something else. But on "luxury", an 80% discount at the Hugo Boss showroom close to where I live says it all-luxury is aspirational in India, but we want it at 80% discount.

On the other hand, the "non-noise" silence and ostrich-head-in-the-sand approach being taken by pilots as well as airlines in India, is not only deafening, it is positively criminal. Commercial pilots and their multiple associations and unions, who have in the past not hesitated from going in for labour action for minor and silly reasons and manipulated the media brilliantly, have simply not even bothered to comment or come before the media so far. Barring a few sad looking young pilots, bleating plaintively as they are escorted away to spend quality time with pickpockets and whores, complaining that they spent so much money and now deserve sympathy-nothing.

As for the airlines, it seems as if they are treating this issue as nothing more than a bad smell which may soon pass away like a whiff of smoke, so that they can go back to their business. Barring the suspension or sacking of a few pilots, the rest has been one rapid cover-up operation-business as usual, and resolve as quickly the minor issues of passengers suddenly looking into the cockpit to see what the pilot really looks like. After all, they know the truth. It is not just the young recently employed pilots who were working on fake licences. Look around, check out some of the older and senior pilots, do a double-check on the engineers and figure out. Better to close ranks and not make waves-or clear air turbulence, in this case.

Not that there aren't good and qualified people in the aviation industry in India. Sure there are. But the truth be simply told, they were and are aware of what is going on, and have all been in some way or
the other, compromised. The rot is so deep that anybody who speaks or breathes against it internally is going to suffer.

However, in all this, the one major stakeholder who has been royally ignored is the air passenger. Yes, there is some sort of an Air Passengers Association of India (APAI), of which I am a member, which seems to be more interested only in an MLM kind of scheme to bring more members into the fold. So what can we, as passengers, with our lives in the hands of these fake and substandard pilots and their employers, do? Especially on domestic flights, where we have no options?

Here's a short primer, and if you are going on a domestic flight in the near future, you are well advised to read it as well as try to practise it. This is going to be the only way to force airlines and their unions to come out and take a reasoned, as well as pro-consumer stand on an issue that cannot be just brushed under the carpet again, with repeated interviews and quotes from the same old tired faces at the DGCA and in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA).

1) Understand that the all-in-one cover-up term used by an airline to see that they adhere to matters is "airworthy". Without being "airworthy", an aircraft is simply not supposed to be flying on commercial flights, with passengers onboard. A great bunch of papers this.

However, the term "airworthy" is like elastic by definition, used more to keep the insurance companies, accountants, bankers and regulators happy, and it is stretched by most airlines. One way they do this is to operate flights on the basis of "MEL" exemptions. "MEL" means "minimum equipment list", and the usual way for airlines to flout this is to claim that they require to operate for a few more flights, till the spares come in. Or, by taking repeated exemptions.

You need to simply ask, and if possible get it in writing before your flight, whether your aircraft is airworthy at all times when you are on board, and before boarding, if there are any MEL exemptions in force by the airline, and why. Ask the cabin crew to get this list from the pilot-you are entitled to it-and if there are MELs in force, then you are entitled not to fly if you do not wish to take the risk.

2) While asking for the pilot's licence and confirming the insurance status for an aircraft on a scheduled flight may appear to be far-fetched, the fact remains that you are entitled to know about both these matters before boarding. As a matter of fact, the DGCA website keeps an updated record of these two items, and you can refer to it before boarding, once you spot the registration data of the aircraft.

In reality of course, with specific aircraft being allotted for certain flights at the last minute, and boarding being carried out very often through means wherein you cannot really see the aircraft registration data, this may not be possible unless you ask to be shown what the registration marks are. Since it is likely that you will not be able to check this before boarding, it may be worth your while to note down the aircraft registration data as well as the pilot's licence information, both of which you are entitled to source as a bonafide passenger onboard, and do a post-facto check online.

3) Be fully aware that the "best practice" that airlines follow has everything to do only with keeping the paperwork pertaining to the airworthiness of the aircraft in order, in flight-pre-flight as well as post facto. That's one reason they are running around keeping very quiet. Because, if any passenger seeks to know from the DGCA, through a Right to Information (RTI) application, whether the flight he or she was on was operated by a fake pilot, and if it is found that it was, then the particular aircraft becomes non-airworthy from that point onwards. It is like saying, hey, we know there was a performing monkey in our cockpit for months and months, but we now haven't re-verified if the monkey did any damage or not.

Take out your flight log for the past few months and write to the DGCA with a copy to the airline, to ask them if the flights you took were fully air-worthy or not. And if they weren't because some fake pilot was at the helm, what have they done to make the aircraft airworthy since then?

4) Most important, airline advertisements and strategy in the past stressed a lot on the safety aspect. Some of the better airlines-Qantas is an example, Singapore Airlines is another-still do. Have you observed how airlines in India are lately doing everything other than even remotely mentioning "safety". One reason for this is that we do not ask. And so airlines try to hide behind the excuse that they use DGCA-licenced pilots, while being fully aware that there was and still is a big question mark hanging over the reliability of DGCA. Especially on its past and current track record on licencing.

The question we need to ask airlines openly, on this forum as well as through individual letters, is simple: Will they make their safety-related parameters and data open to the flying public, and if no, why not?

There is a lot more that we can and have to do to out civil aviation in the country back on an even keel. Staying quiet about things, and becoming accomplices in airlines hopes that matters will simply blow away, is not an option we should quietly accept. So, when on your next flight demand photocopies of licences, insurances, MELs, and airworthiness documents. Or just walk off the aircraft. The ONLY weapon we have as customers is to make a reasoned and very public argument about deficiencies with airlines.

Be a part of the change, instead of just another victim in the back seat. You can do this politely, without aggression. After all, the complete Gulati episode, apparently, started with a similar passenger feedback to the DGCA. And see the change it brought about.

The pigsty that is civil aviation in India (Part II) - Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine

 

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The pigsty that is civil aviaton in India (Part III)​

March 31, 2011 05:48 PM |
Veeresh Malik

Over 90% of Indian domestic air passenger travel is supposed to be ‘business travel’, and is paid for by commercial entities. One would have thought that the largest protest would have come from them, since it is their human assets which are out there in the skies, being flown by fakes and frauds. However, they too have kept their silence... and the reasons are not too far to find

The complete business of buying, owning, operating and generally keeping in good order any private airplane is totally in the hands of the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation). One word or line out of place by any business leaders, and they would probably find that they have to take commercial flights, too. And that wouldn't really do, would it? I mean, can you imagine—not being permitted to take your private business plane on a holiday to watch the Indian Cricket Team defeat the Pakistani Cricket Team?

Let’s get back to our series on civil aviation. There is somebody in the civil aviation part of governance in India who is very, very upset with the title as well as contents of the first two parts of this series (The pigsty that is civil aviation in India (Part I) The pigsty that is civil aviaton in India (Part I) - Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine) and the second (The pigsty that is civil aviation in India (Part II) (The pigsty that is civil aviation in India (Part II) - Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine).

Apparently, the title and article are "against National Interest", and there is concern that the international community will laugh at us. Or worse. On the contents of the article itself, there is not much reflex, as yet. Whether the reality of aviation in India is not against national interest, known wide and far and currently the subject of immense interest on the Internet as well as with the international community, nothing.

Well, first things first—the reference to pigsty and all matters porky, including porcine fingers from the various parts of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA, et al, dipping into the fat and grabbing the grease, in a manner of speaking, were and are with reference to a book called Animal Farm. Penned not too long ago by a famous writer of Indian origin and Bengali birth, erstwhile from Motihari and Katihar, now in Bihar, called George Orwell. If they haven't read it, my sincere apologies, but I have always maintained that more of us should look towards Bihar for inspiration. Including of the National Interest sort, lately.

Next, as far as "National Interest" due to media reportage is concerned, spare me. There is no dearth of inside information many of us have on how anything even remotely resembling "National Interest" is more often than not the first victim to be spat out by the roadside the moment anything to do with civil aviation is taken up in India. Whether it is equity acquired free of cost by ministers who manage amazing links also with the people who operate accounts in tax havens, or whether it is plain and simple payoffs for everything down the line, the realities are known on the street.

You only have to try to fathom out the amazingly anti-people and probably anti-National terms and conditions of airport privatisation in India, for example, to see how the aviation scams when they finally surface will leave the Telecom and CWG/IOA scams way behind. Even John Company could not have got some of them past the natives with some of the conditions we find ourselves bound to lately.

But hey, National Interest, to be confused with personal benefit, means that deep resounding silences are preferred, with messages sent that anybody falling out of line shall be dealt with. Guess what, we only have National Interest in mind while writing, so, here we go.

To start with, barring the aviation authorities, what else can we deduce by way of the resounding silence from other entities involved in the aviation business in India? And what other solutions can we try to offer, as responsible citizens looking out for National interest? That is the question this third instalment hopes to answer.

Before that, an anecdote— it happened decades ago. I was in a shipping company's office when word came in that a ship had gone down, somewhere in the South China Sea, with all hands on board. This was in the days when dry cargo bulk carriers were sinking with regular frequency, and human error was the regular result of enquiries carried out by flag states—flag states being, largely, the so-called ‘Flag of Convenience’ countries. The usual SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) was to run around, ensure that all paperwork satisfying any seaworthiness requirements were updated before the inspectors landed up, and then to figure out how to maximise profits out of insurance as well as P&I Clubs. Simply put, human error was equal to all money recovered by the ship-owner, and some scanty compensation provided to relatives of the blamed and found guilty, already deceased.

Pretty much the same procedure is adopted with airline crash enquiries. It is never, or seldom, that the truth on manufacturing defects or maintenance or anything else comes out—except, lately, with some cases in developed countries. International TV crews cannot be everywhere—they weren't given access to the Mangalore crash, for example. Fake licence or not, will that information ever be re-verified? Has it ever been re-verified in the past? The answer is NO.

This placing all the blame on the humans on board went on, not surprisingly, until a British ship (the Derbyshire ) with British crew onboard went down. And the families, unions as well as other entities like educational and research organisations organised a very serious investigation. They paid for it, too, in millions of pounds. Which included—amongst other things—the hiring of deep sea submarines to go down to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and take photographs as well as try to figure out what happened.

The rest is known history, and brought forward the first real change in attitudes by ship-owners and shipyards towards safety in design, especially in larger ships. There was no human error at sea in this case. The huge ship simply broke up in microseconds and went down due to greed and design defects. There was sheer criminal negligence ashore at every stage, though—which the underwater probes brought out.

Something like that is what happens in civil aviation, too, especially in ‘emerging’ Third World countries. Like ours.

If an aviation accident takes place, almost every time—and this is borne out by the few accident investigation reports openly available—the blame is in most cases assigned to human error. The drill down attitude at Animal Farm, therefore, is simple—the little piglets, or humans at the front end, are disposable anyways. So does it really matter if their licence is genuine or not, as long as the paper trail behind it works to satisfy the owners and the insurance companies, in case and when an incident does occur?

All they will do is to go and hang another piglet.

But now we come to the part where the piglets take the battle to the bigger pigsty, the ones where the other fatter pigs are sitting, licking their chops, and waiting for the fuss to die down. As said before, a couple of middle or junior level DGCA officials will get it in the neck, some junior pilots without proper connections will lose their livelihoods, and after a while things will go back to as they were before.

If we really want to understand why that happens and has happened for centuries, then we have to take time out to read Emily Eden's bitingly incisive letters and reports on her visit to India. Before 1857. The fundamentals, however, of how things work in India remain the same. All that has changed is that the names of the players, be they the foreigners and their East India companies trying to rule us, or our own Maharajahs and their Munims bowing backwards to do their bidding, remain the same.

So, some basic fixes expected by consumers and customers from the real players, are proposed. All in the National Interest, of course?

1) Airlines will simply need to dig and drill down deeper into the licences held by pilots, especially those who have not come through regular channels like the Government run-training colleges, the Indian Air Force, their own cadet programmes or with otherwise impeccable backgrounds. Pilots who have come through the route of nepotism will have especially to be checked.

Which training college is genuine and which is fake is well known in the industry, and this information simply needs to be put to use. The simulators as well as internal checks and balances need to be in position. And any small security or detective agency will run a fairly comprehensive background check for a few thousand rupees.

In addition, airlines need to evolve their own cockpit crew matrix, like is done on ships as well as some of the better airlines. In brief, a new pilot must have an experienced co-pilot or another senior experienced pilot in the cockpit. Likewise, new co-pilots must work only under experienced pilots. The total number of actual flying hours on type should not be less than a certain number for both pilots in the cockpit, and this should be published data. Anything less than that "matrix", the total hours of experience inside a cockpit for both the pilots in the front seats, and the aircraft needs to be declared non-airworthy for scheduled passenger operations till rectified. A good number for this matrix, based on inputs from pilots, would be a minimum combined total of 4,000 hours "on type".

No point telling us customers about the food on board or something equally inane. We already know that co-pilots are hired basis on some amazing advance deposit to the airline process, and that promotions are done basis on external influences. Just let us know what the minimum hours in your cockpits will be when we fly.

2) Expecting the mainstream media to play honest intermediary is difficult—airlines and the rest of the related tourism industry are not just big advertisers, but also often have cross holdings in media companies. In addition, most airlines in India have deals with print and television media for barter on ad space against travel and other aviation services, like maintenance of aircraft and helicopters.

We would expect the tourism industry to come out very strongly with a statement on this issue of fake pilots. There is going to be no dearth of tourists who are going to think multiple times before boarding a domestic flight in India. That would certainly be in the ‘National Interest’. The tourism industry could start with running a boycott of some of the airlines which have been the more flagrant violators of aviation safety.

Why has the tourism industry not spoken up? Well, National Interest could be one reason, though the real reason probably has to do with the fact that the tourism industry is heavily linked with the travel industry, and the travel industry is going to be selectively strangled by the aviation guys if they dare speak up. Every large hotel chain, every travel company—depends on the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA, who depend on the aviation industry. Better to keep quiet.

3) Aviation incident reports need to be made totally public, and available to travellers as well as others not just free of charge on the Internet after things are over, but also co-terminal with the proceedings which need to be open to the public. As of now, most of the truth probably gets shielded in National Interest, whatever that means. Even in the Indian Air Force, casualty and incident reports are freely distributed to airmen, so that they will learn from things.

Likewise, in other countries, the aviation regulators and authorities have a system of proactively encouraging incident reports from not just cockpit crew, but also cabin crew, ground staff and passengers. With the advent of the Internet, awareness and knowledge of matters pertaining to aviation is very high, and many people other than the pilot know what is going on —and when it is going wrong.

Within India, the DGCA and others do not even now have a working system, to accept and review inputs from those impacted by deficiencies in civil aviation. This needs to be fixed, very soon, and made public. As of now, anybody from within the industry complaining about an incident is usually marked as a whistleblower and then taught such a lesson that he or she never goes back to do so again, and anybody from outside the industry—like a passenger or other user—simply does not have an avenue.

However, if you scan the various Internet groups on the subject, then some of the experiences are terrifying. The regulator, DGCA, needs to fix this. Soon.

4) Taking "tests" for new entrants is another racket that needs to be controlled and regulated by the DGCA. As on date, a half-day "test" for a co-pilot's job sets a candidate back by Rs20,000 and more. Typically, for recruiting all of three-five co-pilots, an airline will place an advertisement, and attract anything between 300 and 3,000 applicants.

All of whom will put down Rs20,000 or more. And use all the clout they have. To answer a 2-page question paper, and if lucky, then move on to an oral viva. After which, most of them will not be given even the courtesy of a response, and will simply not get their money back.

Certainly, airlines and other employers are entitled to their own procedures, but do the math— look at the amount of money that is flowing. And that is not all—if selected, a co-pilot has to typically place a "deposit" of around Rs20-Rs25 lakh with the airline, which he or she then has to pay back from the earnings generated.

Of course, DGCA knows about this—there are names and phone numbers of DGCA "touts" pertaining to this "service" available on the Internet groups, openly. As a matter of fact, like pamphlets for apartments on rent, similar small handbills were available at the JorBagh Metro Station right opposite Safdarjung till not too long ago. What DGCA can do is to try and regulate this process of taking money for examinations and then deposits. In the National Interest.

5) As we said earlier, over 90% of domestic air passenger travel in India is "business travel", and is paid for by commercial entities. One word or line out of place by any business leaders, and they would probably find that they have to take commercial flights, too.

And that wouldn't really do, would it? I mean, can you imagine—what if you were not permitted to take your private business plane to watch India defeat Pakistan yesterday?

It is loud and clear that the issue of fake licensing is going to die out soon, like so many other issues have done so in the past. However, the big difference now is something called "transparency", where much information is easily available, to those who seek it. It therefore remains to be seen what WE do with this information, if WE are interested in fixing things.

As a sidelight, here's a list of all the aircraft that operated to and from Chandigarh Airport on The Day, 30th of March 2011. It should be known that this is publicly available information, all timings are in GMT (IST minus 5 hours 30 minutes) and that the list includes military airplanes as well as civilian airplanes. All times are "airborne", means when they took off from Chandigarh.

Will we ever know if the commercial business houses who used their aircraft—were these placed in their books as business expenses or as personal expenses? Likewise, there were some amazing diversions, for example, Kingfisher Chennai to Mumbai, operated via Chandigarh. And then, to make things more interesting, a very brief analysis on the order of departure shows who is what.

1812: Prime Minister of India (B738)
1828: Prime Minister of Pakistan (A310)
1832: 2nd plane from Prime Minister of India (B737)
1849: Vijay Mallya's personal plane. (A319)
1855: JSW Steel Bombardier-100 OP Jindal group
1858: Mukesh Ambani's personal A-319

And then there were the rest, comprising both Indian and Pakistani aircraft.

The Pigsty that is Civil Aviation in India (Part III) - Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine

 

[gubbi]

Does posting such satisfy your visceral hatred of anything India/Bharti?

Anywho, I would accept that changes indeed need to be made to the civil aviation sector. Having said that, your source - the links you provide and the site which publishes these is substandard to be considered of any value. A website which claims to be a financial news outlet cannot even get spelling and grammar of article titles right, is not much to write about.

Get better credible sources. And yes, we know what happened with those 8 pilots (qualified as co-pilots but posed as captains) who had fake certificates to operate as captains.

Better, credible sources, or chal hat, hawa aande!

 

[jbond197]

chal hat, hawa aande!

Nicely put for the OP!