102 Air India pilots found flying with lapsed licences

New Delhi: The next time you take a flight in India, keep your fingers crossed and hope that your pilot is flying on a valid licence, not a lapsed one.

Air India has discovered that as many as 102 pilots of its wide body Boeing fleet have been flying without clearing a mandatory test that helps keep their licences valid and without which the same lapse.

The airline informed the downgraded-by-US directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) which, worryingly, failed to detect on its own  the flying by so many pilots with lapsed licences.

The AI admission comes on the heels of the regulator last month finding that 131 Jet AirwaysBSE 0.54 % pilots were also flying without clearing a mandatory biannual exam - meaning on a lapsed licence.
26/10/14 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times