Cockpit fraud leaves trained pilots on ground

Meet one such aspiring commercial pilot turned IT professional, Suman Soman (name changed on request), who never did take off despite possessing an American flying licence. The reason, his family could not afford the long gestation period of five to eight years to land a flying job in the early 1990s, nor did they have the "influence" to help him get his foot in the cockpit door.

In stark contrast, around the same time, some others like the discredited Air India pilot, Capt J K Verma, got off to a flying start using “fake“ credentials. Verma’s licence was revoked only last month after he had streaked the skies for 22 long years!

Soman, now 43 and working abroad, recounts his disappointing saga. After obtaining a private flying licence in India, he went to train in a flying school in the US. Though it cost him Rs 5 lakh, a lot more than back home, he could accumulate the required flying hours in about two hours as flying clubs there had 20-30 aircraft each. Whereas most flying schools in India used to have just one aircraft and a trainee barely got 15 minutes a day to fly or not even that after waiting the whole day.

Armed with a licence, the next hurdle was to find a job. The national carriers had few jobs to offer, while the private airlines required the recruit himself to pay for training on a Boeing 737 aircraft for the relevant rating. Or else, one needed “contacts” with the pilots to get at least one foot in.

Having neither - Rs 10 lakh for a Boeing rating or influence with pilots, Soman spent the next four years working with a private carrier as a flight despatcher - helping a pilot with all the preparatory work before take off, including preparing flight schedules and submitting it to Air Traffic Control (ATC), getting landing permission from airports et al. In return, the airline promised to absorb him as a pilot and he even travelled to Delhi for the Boeing 737 technical exams. Once done, he was all set to fly to London to be launched into a flying career. But, the airline closed down.

It was the season of Open-sky policy and private operators were allowed the freedom to operate flights from any airport, and to decide their own flight schedules, cargo and passenger fares. But high costs and mounting salary bills forced many airlines to shut shop.

In 1999, Soman called it quits. He did a short IT course and when his  wife got a job offer in Australia, they decided to migrate. He worked part time while doing a post graduate diploma in IT and eventually took up a job in the public service.

“It is not just the waiting, one has to keep training every two years to keep one’s flying licence alive. Many of my friends who could afford to wait out for another three to four years are pilots today. One friend, who changed course like me, got back after a 15-year gap and is a pilot as well. A senior pilot friend asked me if I would return, I said no as the stability of my family is my priority,” says Soman.

Asked what kept him going, he replies: “Apart from my wife who was supportive, I was fortunate to also have the backing of my family and friends, who always believed in me. My daughter was about a year old then and so we decided it was best to look for stability rather than hang on to uncertainty.”

These dangerous pilots

Crime and punishment