DGCA calls meet with flying schools on Tuesday

HYDERABAD: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) today favoured a complete revamp of issuing license to pilots and called meeting of all flying schools on Tuesday in a bid to put together an action plan to tackle the problem of fudging of documents to obtain licenses.

DGCA DG E K Bharat Bhushan said Pradeep Kumar, Assistant Director of DGCA who was arrested in connection with forging of marksheets to secure pilot license, had been under the Authority's watch for sometime.

"We had been watching him (Kumar). In fact, I had him transferred from the licensing department a month ago. There had been whispers (about his possible involvement in the scam) but we did not have proof," Bhushan told reporters here on the sidelines of GMR Aviation Security Summit aviation here.

He said the DGCA is fully cooperating with the Delhi police investigating the case.

Bhushan said there should be a "complete revamp" of the licensing system and DGCA is going to appoint a third party to scrutinize aviation academies which needed complete scrutiny.

"Our flying schools also needed complete scrutiny. We sometimes get the complaint that some of the flying hours they logged are not genuine," the DGCA said.

He said there is a meeting with all the flying schools on Tuesday to put together an action plan.

"In fact, I called all the flying schools. We will have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday where we are put together a through audit of the schools. We are trying to look at online solutions and looking at many possibilities. The situation has to improve a lot," he said.