A Sigh of Relief

The whole system of flying training and licensing had been corrupted through a powerful nexus. However, the government has finally demonstrated its will to take positive action to rid the system of the long-standing infirmity.

Even while the airline industry in India is flying through a somewhat prolonged turbulence, its regulatory body, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has also been in the throes of a crisis of matching, if not greater, intensity. In the first week of March 2012, it came to light that three senior functionaries in the organisation including a Joint Director General, the occupant of the slot immediately below the Director General, have been placed under suspension. Apparently, the somewhat drastic action has been precipitated on the basis of a report on the investigations conducted by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which holds some officials of the DGCA responsible for misdemeanour in the execution of duties assigned to them. Specifically, the report alleges that “undue privileges granted to 28 flying schools caused a loss of Rs. 190 crore to the national exchequer”.

But the consequences of the malaise in the regulatory body are far more serious than just financial loss to the exchequer of a sum that in the prevailing environment, polluted by monumental scams, can be regarded as paltry. In March last year, the aviation industry in India was rocked by an earth-shattering revelation of the ease with which the regulatory body had been subverted through money power and other corrupt practices that led to unknown number of boys and girls obtaining a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) or even an Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) by fraudulent means. More worrisome for the nation was that pilots with fake licences were already flying with the Indian carriers thereby endangering innocent lives.

Till date, the DGCA has issued over 10,000 CPLs and around 4,000 ATPLs. Comprehensive and foolproof scrutiny of all the licences would, by any standards, be a herculean task. As the DGCA initiated this painful exercise of scrutiny of all the CPLs and ATPLs issued till date, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) rushed in to allay widespread apprehension amongst the travelling public stating that reports on issue of fake flying licences were highly exaggerated. The MoCA went on to state that in scrutiny of licences, only 13 cases of irregularity in respect of six ATPLs and seven CPLs had, till date, been detected, and that there was really no real cause for any panic. In a simultaneous move, a Director-level officer from DGCA was relieved of his duties for having unduly favoured a close relative to obtain a flying licence without the requisite qualifications. However, given the depths to which the credibility of the DGCA had sunk, there was bound to be a serious trust deficit and the figure of just 13 cases of fake licence touted by the MoCA was highly suspected and could well be the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

On their part, the airline managements were neither taking the assurances from the MoCA at face value nor were they prepared to take chances. They moved quickly to conduct internal scrutiny to establish the bonafides of their own employees and restore faith amongst air passengers.