Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh has said pilots involving in fudging of training records will face strict action. Government sources however ruled out a possibility of downgrade of Indian airlines by the US Federal Aviation Administration and said these were mere rumours.
Last year a probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had found that that airline examiners (senior pilots) had logged in more number of hours in their records than the actual number of hours of training carried out in simulators. Taking a strict note of safety violation the regulator had ordered an inquiry. Two Jet Airways pilots were de rostered for a month and an Air India pilot was suspended.
However some safety experts believe that the DGCA went soft on the accused pilots and have demanded that the DGCA cancel the licences of pilots involved in the violations.
On Friday Singh told reporters, " The fudging of the pilots training records is not a small thing. Strong action has to be taken to show that safety would never be compromised."
"We issued show cause notice to the airlines after the incident came to light. Inquiry was carried out. We have punished the pilots,'' a senior DGCA officer said. He added that FAA had not sought any information in that case and said the news about downgrade of airlines was a rumour.