Pakistan airline less than fire over fake pilot licence scandal
27 June, 2020
Pakistan's national airline is acquiring heavy flak after it emerged that practically a good third of its pilots were holding fake or perhaps dubious licences, with some observers wondering if the struggling national carrier may survive the scandal.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) this week said it could immediately floor 141 of its 434 pilots after a federal government review found them to have developed "bogus" credentials or cheated on exams by having another person take them.
The scandal will come in the wake of a crash in Karachi last month that killed 98 persons - and which authorities possess essentially blamed on the two pilots.
Investigators said the aviators were chatting about the coronavirus even though they attemptedto land the Airbus A320 without getting its wheels down, catastrophically damaging the engines.
The plane lost power and plunged into houses nearby the airport as it went around for another landing attempt.
According to a authorities review this past year, details of which were revealed on Thursday, 262 of Pakistan's 860 effective pilots maintain fake licenses or perhaps cheated on exams.
More than half of them were from state-work PIA.
Until the 1970s, Pakistan's major airline was considered a high regional carrier but its reputation plummeted amid chronic mismanagement, frequent cancellations and monetary woes.
Up to now, authorities have started dismissal proceedings against 28 of the 262 pilots and subsequent criminal charges tend, Pakistan's aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said in Friday.
PIA provides reforms targeted at restructuring the airline, he told reporters, adding the "clean-up process" should be completed by the finish of the year.
"Folks are saying this (revelation) could have a bad impact. However when you try to save a patient, you need to do significant surgery, radiation - and also chemo," the minister advised a press conference.
He sought to blame PIA's problems in "the wrongdoings of previous governments".
"God willing, 2021 will be the year of the betterment of Pakistan's institutions and, God willing, PIA can be the PIA of memories - the 1960s, '70s and '80s".
'TARNISHED' IMAGE
But several observers didn't talk about the optimism, and doubt whether the public will trust any promised reforms.
The scandal will "prove the last nail in the coffin of PIA," predicted Ijaz Haroon, who was managing director at the airline until he resigned in 2011 amid a union protest.
"The world won't trust us anymore. No one wish to fly with pilots who've bogus licenses. (Khan's) assertion has further tarnished the photograph of the airline".
Shahzad Chaudry, a good retired Pakistan air force air vice marshal, explained the government was unfairly scapegoating PIA, since it is Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority that concerns licenses.
"We not only desire a complete overhauling of PIA but CAA aswell, as both go together," Chaudry told AFP.
The federal government said Friday it had suspended five CAA officials in the scandal.
PIA, which is helmed by a serving air force officer, currently includes a fleet of 31 planes and a good payroll of about 14,500 workers.
The high staff-to-plane ratio has seen long-standing accusations the government and the military use the airline to hand out jobs to cronies and retired army officers.
"The current PIA economic model is beneath the vested interests of political celebrations and different pressure groups," Chaudry said.
"No airline has 500 personnel per aircraft. Our monetary model proper from the building blocks is unsustainable."
Three current PIA pilots who spoke to AFP on state of anonymity outlined a series of issues, including pilots being forced to work lengthy shifts as high as 24 hours.
A good PIA spokesman said there is "no such case".
Pakistan has a chequered army and civilian aviation protection record, with frequent plane and helicopter crashes over the years.
In 2016, a PIA plane burst into flames after among its two turboprop engines failed throughout a flight from the remote north to Islamabad, killing a lot more than 40 people.
Qasim Qadir, the joint secretary at the Pakistan Airline Pilot Association, needed a transparent and thorough final investigation in to the Might 22 Karachi crash that killed all but two of the 99 persons aboard and a kid on the ground.
"Blaming (the pilots) is a very important factor but ... we want the machine to become safer for all of us and the passengers. Hence please help to make it a fair investigation," Qadir said.
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