JOIN USA six-member committee, headed by DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan, has been set up to recommend measures to improve the quality of flying training in the country. The move came in the wake of the racket involving forgery of documents to get pilot licenses, in which at least 22 persons have been arrested by the police so far.
The experts’ panel, which would have to submit its report to the Civil Aviation Ministry within the next two months, would have to recommend steps to make the pilots’ training process “secure, credible and efficient” in line with the most-modern and best practices, official sources said.
Besides computerising the entire process of documentation to counter forgery, the committee would also consider conducting a common entrance examination system for the pilots, along with psychological and aptitude tests before they enter any flying club.
To prevent forgery or faking of documents or flight log books, the committee would devise means to cross-verify the flying records of trainee pilots, including through technological intervention, the sources said.
Besides the DGCA chief, the committee would include Air Marshal D Kukreja, head of IAF Training Command, Bangalore, Air Marshal (Retd) V K Verma, Director IGRUA, Air Commodore (Retd) H H Patel, Director National Flying Training Institute, Gondia and Mahesh Chandra, Deputy DG, National Informatics Centre.
Following reports of fake pilot license scandal in February-March this year, Directorate General of Civil Aviation had carried out fast-track verification of Airline Transport Pilot Licences and Commercial Pilot Licences.