Hopefully, the authorities concerned will heed the recommendations of the Court of Inquiry and take necessary steps to ensure that the safety of the passengers is not jeopardised by vested interests perpetuating dependence on expatriate pilots

Report by a Court of Inquiry headed by the former Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal B.N. Gokhale on the crash of Air India Express Boeing 737 at Mangalore airport on May 22, 2010, is now available in public domain. The court has recommended that a thorough scrutiny of expatriate pilots to be carried out by the regulatory authorities before they are cleared for employment by the airlines in India. The exercise must include “flight safety issues for the entire flying career as well as anomalies during training from all the previous employees”. The court has held the highly experienced Commander, Captain Z. Glusica, a British national of Serbian origin, responsible for the accident that was a result of an “unstabilised” approach and failure on his part to take corrective action even when repeatedly advised by the First Officer.

The acute shortage of pilots, especially Commanders, in the wake of the boom in the airline industry in India that began in 2004 leading to rapid expansion of capacity, left the airline managements with no option but to employ expatriate pilots fill the void and keep their aircraft airborne. Although there was no dearth of pilots in the country holding Commercial Pilot Licence, these did not have the experience levels to be trained as Commanders soon enough. The airlines therefore found it expedient to hire experienced pilots from abroad who already had the requisite endorsement to fly as Commanders. At one point in time, the total number of expatriate pilots flying with airlines in India was close to a thousand. With tax-free salaries and lavish perks, the emoluments offered to expatriates were substantially higher than those of their local counterparts. Apart from the cost-to-company for hiring expatriates being exorbitant, the practice impeded professional growth of Indian pilots aspiring to be Commanders. However, the more serious implication of inducting expatriate pilots as Commanders in large numbers was the impact on air safety.

Pilots from abroad are hired by Indian carriers through recruiting agencies that have representatives located in India. Hefty commissions are paid to the recruiting agencies and their Indian representatives for both the initial contracts and renewal annually. Thus induction of expatriates is also driven by powerful vested interests which despite frequent rhetoric, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has not been able to counter. Pilots come from all parts of the world, from South America to East Europe and from Africa to the Central Asian Republics. Several expatriate pilots hailed from countries with dubious standards in training, but sailed past the regulatory authorities with relative ease without the stringent scrutiny that Indian pilots are usually subjected to. Besides, expatriate pilots were not required to undergo medical examination in India, the implications of which are too obvious to be stated. This anomaly has now been removed deterring expatriates with doubtful medical condition. Many of the pilots were found to be weak in spoken English leading to problems in communication with air traffic control or in the cockpit, the latter compromising crew resource management, so critical to air safety.