Now, aviation schools selling unearned flying hours under probe
16 Mar 2011
The racket of pilots flying on fake certificates obtained from touts is now pretty much exposed, but there seems to be another equally insidious one - aviation schools selling flying hours which the candidates haven't actually earned.
In a joint effort, the Central Bureau of Investigation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation are probing certain flying schools in this regard, The Times of India reported.
These schools allegedly certify flying hours to students, enabling them to get a commercial pilot licence, even though they do not have the planes on which they certify their students have flown - for a steep price of course.
This means that these students buy their way to becoming a co-pilot without having the actual experience to do so.
A CBI team went to the DGCA office on Tuesday to figure out the modus operandi being used by flying schools to churn out fake pilots.
"DGCA chief Bharat Bhushan formed a three-member team of officers with a clean track record from different regions who secretly visited the suspect flying schools. They came across serious irregularities, like selling of flying hours. The list of suspect schools has been shared with the CBI and there is going to be action against them soon," the report cited unnamed sources to say. Many such schools are run by highly-connected people, it adds.
"Senior CBI officials have been in touch with DGCA top boss for some time and they have been sharing information. Some flying schools have been under the scanner and once the doubts about them are verified to be true, this list may be made public to ensure more families don't send their children to such fraudulent places," said the report, again quoting sources.
