DGCA's special audit for the elite club reveals grave irregularities like logging fake flying hours and overshooting flying limit of aircraft; licence renewal suspended for now
DGCA's special audit for the elite club reveals grave irregularities like logging fake flying hours and overshooting flying limit of aircraft; licence renewal suspended for nowu00a0
From forging flying hours to operating aircraft for double the number of prescribed hours are two of the serious violations mentioned in the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation's special audit report on the prestigious Bombay Flying Club (BFC).
Of all the DGCA's audits so far, the club training ground for hundreds of commercial pilots was found to have breached the most norms, ranging from issues of safety to operations.
"The lists of discrepancies are serious and run in volumes. It is such a long list that it will take a lot of time to read all the violations. I can only say that all serious aspects which need to be adhered to as per guidelines have been violated," said a top official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The BFC's irregularities include misrepresentation of flying hours in the logbook and fake entries regarding flying aircraft during flight training despite the fact that those aircraft were not operated for that many hours in reality.
Further, the club operated an aircraft for 200 hours, whereas the rulebook permits only 100 hours. As per regulations, it did not obtain fresh permission before increasing the number of flying hours.
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"The CESSNA aircraft available with the flying club was operated for more than 200 hours without any permission which is very dangerous," said the official.
Fire tenders were kept empty and in a bad shape, which can be a serious concern during emergency. As per rules, all fire tenders must be in good shape and filled with water so that it may be rushed for rescue operations without delay.
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The club also did not maintain the snag resister, compulsory for all flying schools for registering technical snags during any operation. Moreover, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) were grossly violated, the official said.
DGCA chief E K Bharatbhushan said, "Serious discrepancies were found in the special audit report and the same has been sent to the concerned flying school." He refused to elaborate on the findings further.
Although the flying club has sacked two of its employees to absolve itself in the matter, sources inside DGCA revealed that the role of top management is under scanner too.
"Such serious irregularities are unlikely to take place without the knowledge of top bosses. The facts will emerge in due course of time. The club will have to struggle to come out clean as the charges are grave," claimed a DGCA official.
The DGCA's audit comes after the fake licence scam that has been in the news for the past several months. The aviation authority ordered inspections of all flying clubs in India, specially of the BFC as part of its programme to check irregularities.
Incidentally, the Rajasthan police, in its probe into the fake pilot licence scam, came up with similar findings. It exposed two flying academies located in Jaipur, Rajasthan and Hisar, Haryana where inaccurate flying hours and fake entry of non-operational aircraft in logbooks were reported.
With the ongoing review, the BFC has become the first Indian academy to have the renewal of its flying licence rejected. The license expired on July 12 and has not been renewed by the DGCA.
As such, the school's training activities have been suspended.
About BFCThe Bombay Flying Club, one of the oldest flying clubs in the country, was founded by JRD Tata in 1929. The institute is located at the Juhu aerodrome. In 2009, the BFC moved a chunk of its training operations to Dhule. The school currently has 28 students.u00a0
The Other SideDespite MiD DAY's repeated calls and text messages, BFC President Captain Mihir Bhagwati did not respond.
