Jet Airways pilots found flying without clearing proficiency test, DGCA issues show cause notice

Weeks after it was found out that the co-pilot in the Germanwings Airbus A320, who crashed the plane into the French Alps, hid a serious illness from the airline, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in India has detected a new list of Jet Airways pilots who had not cleared the mandatory pilots’ proficiency check (PPC).

The DGCA issued a show cause notice to Jet Airways on the issue. The airline said that it has replied to the DGCA on the matter and that all its pilots “are now compliant with the current PPC cycles,” according to Economic Times .

This is not the first time Jet Airways pilots have been found to be working without clearing the PPC. In September 2014, DGCA had cracked down on nearly 140 Jet Airways pilots for continuing to fly without clearing mandatory biannual exams and had issued show cause notices to the airline questioning its pilot training programme.

The notices were issued to the pilots, as also Jet’s chief operating officer and training chief, on the basis of an audit of its training programme by a three-member DGCA team, according to PTI.

The DGCA, through the show cause notices, had asked these pilots why their licenses should not be suspended as they were flying without clearing their PPC tests, which have to be carried out every six months. These tests examine the overall knowledge level and proficiency of a pilot

The audit had been ordered after one of the airline’s planes plunged several thousand feet while flying over the Turkish airspace on the Brussels-Mumbai route in early August 2014.

Jet employs obout 600 pilots. As per the findings of the audit report, as many as 131 pilots had been found to be flying after expiry of validity of certificates of their proficiency check.

After the crackdown in September, the DGCA had also sent a show cause notice to Jet on 16 March, stating that 12 pilots had begun flying duties after their PPC validity had expired during 2014, reported ET.

(With inputs from PTI)