----- Forwarded Message ----
From: M K Singhal <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, 7 June, 2010 9:12:06 AM
Subject: EXPAT PILOTS IN INDIA
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>>The next time a shady foreign pilot from strange country with a dubious
>> qualification or medical history crashes a plane,
>>you and I could actually be on it.
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>>>
>>>There has been a lot of discussion in the media regarding foreign pilots
>>>(also known as expat pilots) in the aftermath of the tragic air accident at
>>>Mangalore. The Minister of Civil aviation, many bureaucrats, airline
>>>officials and even a few journalists have gone to great lengths to explain
>>>how experienced foreign pilots hired by Air India and private airlines are
>>>essential to the Indian aviation industry. A retired spokesperson of Air
>>>India, who has no business to speak on behalf of Air India anymore, has been
>>>repeatedly appearing on television to painstakingly explain how important
>>>foreign pilots are to the company.
>>>Clearly the air disaster at Mangalore with a foreign pilot at the controls
>>>has made a lot of
>>>powerful people worried .Very worried.
>>>
>>>The point however is not whether foreigners should be allowed in Indian
>>>carriers or not. Some of them are highly experienced and respected
>>>professionals who have undoubtedly made a huge contribution to the Indian
>>>airline industry. This article is not about them. It is about a shady scheme
>>>on gargantuan proportions, backed by government policy and a well oiled
>>>system that feeds on unimaginable corruption, on a scale that would astonish
>>>every innocent fare paying air passenger.
>>>
>>>
>>>Air India is a government run Public Sector Undertaking and thus, it is
>>>assumed that rules applicable to other government institutions meant to keep
>>>corruption under check would apply to it too. The Ministry of Defence, for
>>>example has strict rules debarring the involvement of private middlemen or
>>>brokers in facilitating defence contracts. Other ministries have strict
>>>guidelines on the recruitment of qualified personnel or consultants where a
>>>transparent tendering process has to be adhered to.
>>>
>>>
>>>In the case of Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express, such rules do
>>>not seem to apply at all.
>>>Some years ago, the ministry of civil aviation that ran erstwhile Air India
>>>and Indian Airlines, cooked up unrealistic passenger growth projections and
>>>placed massive aircraft orders for Air India and Indian Airlines. Private
>>>airlines only too eager to float shares to rake in public money and
>>>capitalise on the hype jumped in the bandwagon. Overnight, hundreds of
>>>vacancies for pilots were created.
>>>
>>>
>>>Air India began hiring foreign pilots in 2003.Other reputed companies like
>>>Singapore Airlines and various Gulf Airlines such as Emirates, recruit
>>>foreign nationals too but with great transparency. Foreign pilots hired by
>>>them are a part of the regular workforce and are directly hired, without
>>>involving middlemen, on local terms. European airlines do not hire non EU
>>>nationals.
>>>
>>>
>>>In Air Indias case, no global tenders were floated for foreign recruitment
>>>firms and no advertisements in newspapers announcing vacancies for foreign
>>>nationals appeared. Bureaucrats and officials in Air India, hand in glove
>>>with their counterparts and politicians in the Ministry of Civil Aviation,
>>>Ministry of Labour, Home Ministry, Ministry of External Affairs and other
>>>agencies hastily cleared the proposal to hire foreign nationals and the
>>>policy of recruiting foreign pilots was established. Politicians of
>>>opposition parties were roped in and a cosy arrangement was made.
>>>
>>>
>>>To bypass opposition from its own employees and to circumvent elaborate
>>>transparent recruitment procedures and various laws, a defunct
>>>subsidiary,Air India Charters Ltd was revived and used as the vehicle to
>>>issue foreigners contracts. Hence the hundreds of foreign pilots in Air
>>>India and Air Express are routed through Air India Charters Ltdthrough
>>>recruitment firms and then using a legal loophole, deputed to Air India and
>>>Air India Express.
>>>
>>>
>>>Private firms comprising middlemen and brokers, with the respectable title
>>>of Aviation Consultants were approached and many of these, such as Rishworth
>>>Aviation, Parc Aviation and scores of others appeared out of the wood work.
>>>Overnight, new consulting agencies sprang up, some in murky tax havens like
>>>the Isle of Man and Channel Islands.
>>>
>>>
>>>All suddenly began to offer experienced pilots from all parts of the
>>>world. Many of these foreign pilots had and continue to have no clear track
>>>record. Some claim to have thousands of hours of flying experience in
>>>countries as diverse as Russia and Rwanda. Some of the airlines and
>>>countries (such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia) that these pilots flew in
>>>do not even exist anymore. No background checks are carried out by either
>>>Air India or the Indian Government. Strangely the agency of middlemen, or
>>>consultant supplying the pilots, is entrusted with this task.
>>>
>>>
>>>Lucrative contracts were tailor-made to lure foreign pilots in droves.
>>>
>>>
>>>Decades of rules meant to harass Indian pilots such as stringent medical
>>>standards were waived off by the government for foreign pilots. Air Indias
>>>pilots who are Indian nationals, have to undergo a DGCA medical test known
>>>as a Class I medical examination and then are again subjected to an
>>>elaborate company medical test known as a Pre Employment Medical Examination
>>>(PEME).None of these apply to foreign nationals in India.
>>>
>>>
>>>For example, an Indian pilot may not be allowed fly an Indian passenger
>>>aircraft wearing a pacemaker but a foreigner most probably would because the
>>>medical standards in his country allow it. There have been cases where
>>>Indian pilots who are permanently medically grounded by Indian authorities
>>>get foreign citizenship and foreign licences and return to India to fly
>>>planes on expat terms. At least two such foreign pilots have served Air
>>>India on such a contract.
>>>
>>>
>>>Infact foreign pilots flying Indian registered aircraft are not even
>>>required to have Indian flying licences! All they had to do is produce proof
>>>of experience and a foreign licence and the DGCA issues a temporary
>>>authorisation. Such proof of experience could be a fake certificate or a
>>>fake rubber stamp but nobody carries out a background check.
>>>
>>>
>>>A foreign pilot is not legally answerable to the Indian DGCA since he does
>>>not have an Indian Licence. The DGCA can neither revoke nor suspend his
>>>flying licence. Technically, an Indian Co Pilot involved in a serious air
>>>accident may lose his flying licence and his job; whereas the pilot, if he
>>>is a foreigner can take the next flight home and start life on a clean slate!
>>>
>>>
>>>To prevent the foreign pilots from coming under the ambit of direct taxes in
>>>India, the pilots are officially based in foreign countries such as Dubai
>>>and not given local terms of employment. Every month Air India pays the
>>>foreign recruitment agencies the salaries of these pilots along with a
>>>commission or consultancy fees to foreign bank accounts. This is turn
>>>trickles back to the various politicians and officials who patronise the
>>>system. Not surprisingly, a foreign pilot who recently approached Air India
>>>for a job recently was asked to route his application through a recruitment
>>>agency!
>>>
>>>
>>>As a result ,hundreds of crores of income tax that would have normally gone
>>>to the Indian Income Tax Department through TDS had these pilots been based
>>>in India, is diverted to foreign bank accounts in foreign countries
>>>
>>>
>>>Liaison officers and advisors, meant to facilitate business interests, are
>>>regularly appointed by these foreign recruitment agencies to liaise with the
>>>various ministries and departments. Two of Air Indias senior most executives
>>>have retired in the past one year and have joined such firms as liaison
>>>officers. Another, a retired CMD, continues to show great personal interest
>>>in negotiating foreign pilots contracts on behalf of recruitment agencies.
>>>
>>>
>>>Foreign pilots are provided more leave, sometimes upto ten days in a month
>>>the justification being that they need to go home to be with their families.
>>>Indian pilots flying for Air India Express are made to go on postings for
>>>fifteen days at a stretch and given one day off at their home
>>>base. Ironically these Indian pilots spend three to four days every month
>>>with their families and the foreigners (who could be from neighbouring Nepal
>>>or Dubai) spend more than a week to ten days every month on holiday.
>>>
>>>
>>>Foreigners also get paid a higher salary and are entitled to five star hotel
>>>accommodations even when not flying.As a result, hundreds of hotel rooms are
>>>booked by Air India at exorbitant rates a percentage of which presumably
>>>flows back to some officials.
>>>
>>>
>>>This murky system in Air India of the past seven years has quietly gone
>>>unnoticed. As long as flights took off on time and passengers reached their
>>>destinations nobody really cared. Unions cried themselves hoarse- only to be
>>>drowned in the din of the money power of powerful lobbies and an ill
>>>informed media often hesitant to upset a mega industry that generates
>>>lucrative advertisement revenue
>>>
>>>
>>>The air crash at Mangalore need not have necessarily been caused by an
>>>incompetent foreign pilot. This article is not meant to disrespect the
>>>majority of foreign pilots in India. But the larger issue of rampant
>>>corruption and greed must be addressed immediately. Little wonder that all
>>>the officials in the dishonest food chain are now working overtime to cover
>>>up the issue. Sadly the one hundred and fifty eight innocent people that
>>>have been killed cannot speak for themselves anymore.
>>>
>>>
>>>Therefore we, the rest of the nation, must stand up in one voice to demand a
>>>CBI enquiry to unravel the mess.
>>>
>>>
>>>We cannot afford to wait for another air disaster to prove the politicians,
>>>bureaucrats and officials wrong.
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