Indian skies safest in the world; action taken against erring pilots, says Raju

“There will no compromise on safety or security... Indian skies are the safest in the world,” Raju said during Question Hour, adding that India is also the fastest growing domestic aviation market.

Asserting that Indian skies are the safest in the world, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Thursday said there will be no compromise on safety and security and action is being taken against erring pilots.

An Air India flight AI-215 in IGI airport in New Delhi. (HT File Photo)

The minister told the Lok Sabha that three instances had come to the notice of aviation regulator DGCA where fake documents were submitted for getting pilot licences and action was being taken.

“There will no compromise on safety or security... Indian skies are the safest in the world,” Raju said during Question Hour, adding that India is also the fastest growing domestic aviation market.

During the last three years and the current year, only one case came to the notice of DGCA on December 15, 2016 in which a pilot of Air India had flown an aircraft with a lapsed licence and was immediately suspended, Raju said.

To a query about instances of submitting fake documents for pilot licences, the minister said there were three cases in the last nearly four years.

Various steps are taken by the DGCA to detect forgery in obtaining pilot licence such as “inclusion of item for checking pilot licenses system during the audit or main base inspection of airlines”.

Responding to a supplementary question, Raju said it is a fact that some aviation training institutes are not maintaining the standards and efforts are on to ensure that such things do not happen. “Improvement is a continuous process,” he added.

To another question, Raju said the issue of congestion at airports is being taken care by the Airports Authority of India.