The Assistant Director of Licensing in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Mr Pradeep Kumar, who was arrested on Friday night by the police in connection with the fake pilot licence scam, had been under watch by the DGCA for over a month.

“We had been watching him. In fact, I had him transferred from the licensing department a month ago. There had been whispers (about his involvement in the scam), but we did not have proof,” Mr E.K. Bharat Bhushan, DGCA, told presspersons on the sidelines of an aviation summit here on Saturday.

Asked whether he would initiate an internal probe, he said: “We will be fully supporting the investigation agencies. Our officials (in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation) are ready to be questioned by the investigative agencies, if needed.” He, however, said although the fake pilot licence issue was serious in nature, there is no need to panic.

“Our overall safety mechanism is in place. Out of the 4,500 Airline Transport Pilot Licences issued, we have verified 1,700 licences so far (after the scam broke out) and of these seven turned out to be fake,” he said.

The DGCA will also put under the scanner all the 10,000 holders of Commercial Pilot Licences in the wake of the scam.

Replying to a question, he said the DGCA would have a third-party audit of all the flying schools in the country. The audit would be conducted by officials not connected with the office of the DGCA, he said, adding that the independent audit could start within three months.

On foreign flying schools, Mr Bhushan said the DGCA has decided not to take the licences issues by international schools “on face value”. “We will be henceforth seeking re-confirmation from the foreign schools (on the genuineness of the licences),” he said.

Revamp soon

The DGCA said the directorate was in the process of revamping the entire pilot licencing system with several reforms. The DGCA is likely to unveil the new pilot licencing system in the next few days.

Asked about shortage of manpower in the office of DGCA, he admitted that this “is the biggest challenge we are now facing. We currently have 120 people in the office of the DGCA. We have been sanctioned with 500 new posts, but this takes time.”

Mr Bhushan said he would be meeting his French counterpart next month to discuss ways for joint upgradation of skills and sharing of training expertise.

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