CAA, private airline submit reports to SC in fake degrees case

ISLAMABAD: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the management of Airblue submitted their reports on the status of pilots to the Supreme Court, here on Saturday.

CAA informed the Supreme Court that educational degrees of six pilots of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and two of Shaheen Air were fake.

CAA stated that of 54 pilots, a summary of 28 pilots had been forwarded to the federal government for cancellation of their flying licences. It was further submitted that PIA had a total number of 450 pilots, adding that apart from PIA some 1,934 licences had been issued to the other private airlines.

The report stated that out of 16 suspected holders eight pilots had been suspended for holding fake degrees, adding the Board of Inquiry had pointed out some 262 pilots having suspected flying licences.

“These fake licence holders had never sat for the required examination, stated the CAA report, adding after suspending 54 pilots for holding fake licences, verification of their licences was underway.

The court was informed that 141 of PIA, 10 of Serene Air and nine pilots of Airblue have been grounded besides grounding some other 102 pilots. The CAA further informed the court that some of the pilots had submitted fake degrees of FA and O Level, adding that out of some 208 suspected pilots with fake licences, 34 were issued suspension orders. National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has been approached for bio metric verification”, the CAA submitted, adding that in future CCTV cameras would be installed in the examination centers. The report stated for the Commercial and Air Transport Licence, qualification of Higher Secondary and FSC had been made mandatory besides 200 flying hours were a must for the licence for Commercial pilots as well as passing a test of three hours of flying.

Similarly, for the Air Transport Licence, some 1,500 hours flying experience and a four-hour flight test would be compulsory besides pilots would be required to appear for examination and clear eight papers for getting the licence.

In its report, the management of Airblue informed the Supreme Court that out of nine pilots seven pilots had left the airline in 2014, 2015 and 2018 whereas one of the remaining two pilots had resigned while the other was suspended on June 26, 2020. The Airblue submitted that at present five pilots were working with it and none of them possessed fake licences and educational documents.