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densoo

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 2, 2004
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India Finds Corruption in Fast-Growing Aviation Industry
By HEATHER TIMMONS
The New York Times

NEW DELHI — More than a dozen commercial pilots in India have been stripped of their licenses and a top airline safety official has been suspended after a government investigation uncovered widespread fraud and corruption in the booming aviation industry.

Several of India’s private carriers, as well as its state-run airline, Air India, have fired active pilots as a result of the inquiry, which uncovered pilots falsifying flying records, cheating on flight exams and paying bribes to testing officials.

India’s government and its private sector are already convulsing with corruption scandals, which have tainted mobile phone companies as well as last year’s Commonwealth Games. The pilot investigation, though, carries particular shock value.

“You really are messing with people’s lives if you are messing with a pilot’s license,” said Neil Mills, chief executive of SpiceJet, a low-cost carrier here that has fired three pilots for violations. “The penalties for corruption and not sticking to the rules should be much stricter and better enforced.”

The review of India’s active commercial pilot licenses is about half-finished, said an official with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India’s main airline regulatory body. So far, government officials have revoked 6 commanders’ licenses, which certify experienced pilots to be in charge in the cockpit, and 13 other commercial pilots’ licenses, those often held by first officers.

The agency is also investigating dozens of flight schools that have cropped up in recent years as demand has grown for new pilots. Pilot schools here are attracting new students, from engineers to housewives, and can charge more than $65,000 for a course that lasts less than a year.

India’s airline industry began expanding 20 years ago amid broad economic liberalizations, but it has grown phenomenally as the economy has blossomed in recent years, attracting billions of dollars in investment and giving rise to a number of new airlines to handle tens of millions of new passengers. Government oversight of the boom, analysts and airline professionals here say, lags perilously behind.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, D.G.C.A., is responsible for monitoring everything from airport safety to fleet maintenance and pilot training and certification. This week, R. S. Passi, its director of air safety, was removed from the job amid accusations that his daughter, Garima Passi, had been given preferential treatment in getting her pilot’s license. She was suspended from SpiceJet last month over irregularities.

But the agency’s most serious problem is not corruption within, but crippling understaffing, critics say, adding that it has little real chance of policing an industry prone to corruption and rife with nepotism.

“It is not the question of just one case, or one D.G.C.A. director or one airline, and then we can fix it and get over it,” said Kapil Kaul, South Asia chief executive for the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a research group. “It is a failure of the entire system.”

Just over 63 million people flew on Indian airlines in 2010, more than double the number of passengers five years ago. India has added more than 300 commercial planes and more than 500 private jets and helicopters in the past 10 years, Mr. Kaul estimates.

While growth in air travel has slowed in Asia in recent months, in India it is still expanding rapidly. Domestic airlines carried 9.6 million passengers in January of this year, up 19.6 percent from a year before.

Accident rates have remained fairly low. Last May’s crash of an Air India Express flight in Mangalore, which killed 158 people, was the first major accident by an Indian carrier in a decade.

The director general of the aviation agency acknowledged that it had not grown apace with the industry. “If you look at the F.A.A. in the United States, they have five or six thousand employees,” said the official, E.K. Bharat Bhushan. “I have 140 people, with 82 airports.”

About two years ago, the Federal Aviation Administration found enough problems with Indian carriers that it threatened to downgrade them to Category 2 status, which would have limited their ability to expand routes to the United States. But that threat was lifted when the Indian aviation agency promised to add 550 positions and make other major changes.

Most of those jobs have not been filled, Mr. Bhushan said. “Because it is a government department, recruitment has been difficult,” he said. Even if a fast-track hiring plan he has proposed to India’s top ministers succeeds, he said, finding skilled airline experts in the country will be difficult. “We just don’t have enough people,” he said.

Pilot groups say the testing system itself needs modernization.

“Our system is just prehistoric,” said Rishabh Kapur, the general secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, a domestic pilots union.

Written tests are given only four times a year and are not computerized, and results take two months, he said. Often, the tests have more to do with reading comprehension and grammar skills than flying know-how, he added.

“We need to pull up our socks and get to global standards,” Mr. Kapur said.
 
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Lone co-pilot 'panicked' after putting Indian 737 into dive
By David Kaminski-Morrow


Investigators have detailed an extraordinary event in which an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 was put into a steep dive moments after the captain was locked out of the cockpit.
While the twin-jet was cruising at flight level 370, en route to Pune from Dubai, the captain left the cockpit for the washroom. Almost as soon as he was gone, the aircraft started to pitch nose-down, after forward pressure on the co-pilot's control column.
India's DGAC attributes this to the co-pilot's adjusting his seat forward and inadvertently knocking the control column.
Flight-data recorder information shows that, after momentary relaxation, the forward pressure on the column increased and the jet pitched to 5° nose-down, before the pitch command briefly transitioned to nose-up.
But another "sharp" nose-down command followed, says the inquiry report, and the forward control column force gradually increased.
The 737 passed through 13° nose-down and an 'overspeed' warning showed the jet's airspeed had risen to Mach 0.82. As the airspeed increased the autothrottle reduced thrust in an attempt to keep the aircraft under control.
Outside the cockpit the captain had felt the change in pitch and attempted to re-enter the flight deck. There was no response from the co-pilot to a request from cabin crew to open the secure cockpit door, and the captain had to resort to an emergency code to gain access. He was away for about 40s in total.
Upon entering the cockpit he saw the aircraft was pitched about 26° nose-down. He responded by pulling on his control column - although the flight-data information shows that, while he was pulling with 130lb (580N) nose-up force, the co-pilot's column was experiencing an opposite pressure of 200lb nose-down.
Shortly afterwards the two columns "rejoined" and the aircraft - which reached a maximum speed of Mach 0.888 - began to pitch nose-up, having lost 6,800ft in altitude during the event. Control regained, the flight continued without further incident.
An admission of being "panic stricken" is given as the co-pilot's explanation for his failure to open the cockpit door. The inquiry report states that he attempted to contact the captain four or five times using an attendant call button.
As the aircraft departed from its planned altitude, as a result of the pressure on the control column, the increase in speed and the warning sounds from the aircraft caused a "panic situation".
The co-pilot "couldn't control the aircraft [or] open the cockpit door and answer the cabin call", the report says: "During the pitch-down attitude he tried to leave the control column to open the cockpit door but the aircraft pitch increased further and altitude [was being lost] rapidly."
It adds that the 25-year-old co-pilot - who had 968h on type - claimed to have forgotten the procedure to return to the assigned flight level.
While none of the 113 passengers was injured during the 26 May event, there had been a commotion in the cabin as a result of the upset, with items spilling into the aisle.
 
It adds that the 25-year-old co-pilot - who had 968h on type - claimed to have forgotten the procedure to return to the assigned flight level. He said at Riddle he was sick that day and was certain that regardless of this event his schooling was "above and beyond" all other flight instruction available.
While none of the 113 passengers was injured during the 26 May event, there had been a commotion in the cabin as a result of the upset, with items spilling into the aisle.

Wait... They are cutting corners in aviation safety in India?! There's widespread corruption?! The Brooklyn Bridge is for sale?!
 
The director general of the aviation agency acknowledged that it had not grown apace with the industry. “If you look at the FAA in the United States, they have five or six thousand employees,” said the official, E.K. Bharat Bhushan. “I have 140 people, with 82 airports.”

So what's the problem? We all know that smaller government is the answer to all that ails a market, any market.
 
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Must be a democrat
Then how would YOU propose that enforcement be achieved?

You want smaller government? Then tell us how we could have that and still enforce all the rules necessary to prevent chaos and a free for all. Let me guess -- Corporations can police themselves. Riiighhhhht.
 
Corporations can police themselves. Riiighhhhht.
Of course they will.

They plugged the oil leak in the gulf, they're pouring water on a nuclear power plant, they're helping us to find a new house by foreclosing on this one, and they're offering to manage the little money we have left after they took most of it in the financial crisis.

They're bending over backwards for us! What more would you have them do? Oh, yea. Cut the government so they can "help" us with our social security and medicare.
 
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India Finds Corruption in Fast-Growing Aviation Industry
By HEATHER TIMMONS
The New York Times

NEW DELHI — More than a dozen commercial pilots in India have been stripped of their licenses and a top airline safety official has been suspended after a government investigation uncovered widespread fraud and corruption in the booming aviation industry.

Several of India’s private carriers, as well as its state-run airline, Air India, have fired active pilots as a result of the inquiry, which uncovered pilots falsifying flying records, cheating on flight exams and paying bribes to testing officials. ...

What? When did Riddle/UND/WMU/and that Comair college open up Indian satellite locations?
 

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