New Delhi, Mar 9 : A woman pilot has been arrested in the capital for allegedly using a forged marksheet of a DGCA test to procure a commercial pilot licence, police said today. Parminder Kaur Gulati, a suspended pilot of Indigo, was apprehended by a team of Delhi Police's crime branch yesterday following investigations into a
complaint filed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Gulati allegedly produced the forged marksheets of DGCA Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) test to get the commercial pilot licence. With ATPL, one can become a co-pilot and to get a full fledged commercial pilot licence one should have ATPL with adequate flying hours.Sources said Gulati had allegedly produced forged marksheets of ATPL examination conducted by the DGCA. She holds a valid commercial pilot licence. Last year, during a flight landing in Goa by Gulati, technical errors were noticed and DGCA had constituted an enquiry to look into it. Sources said, during investigations it came to light that Gulati had allegedly forged marksheets of the ATPL examination, following which she was suspended by the airlines.
The licence was cancelled after she made a rough landing in Goa last month, endangering several lives and investigators later found she had allegedly faked papers to get her permit to fly."Yes, it (commercial pilot's licence) has been cancelled. We will file a police complaint against the pilot, Parminder Kaur Gulati," DGCA
Director General Bharat Bhushan said. "DGCA will carry detailed probe to ensure that such things do not recur. We will take necessary steps accordingly...", he said. DGCA sources said the pilot while flying the private Indigo airliner made a rough landing at Goa airport on January 11 using the nose wheel instead of the rear landing gear. Investigations have revealed that she used the wrong technique several times, the sources said. According to DGCA, to obtain airline transport pilot license, one needs to fly 1,500 flying hours and also required to complete an examination. The sources said the pilot while landing needs to use the aircraft's rear wheels to touchdown as the nose wheel is not equipped to take the plane's heavy weight.
DGCA would also probe whether any touts helped the pilot obtain the license, sources said and added that the DGCA was also contemplating filing police report against the pilot on two counts -- of endangering safety of passengers and fraud and forgery, but no decision has yet been taken. The sources said the incident came to light when the Airbus A-320 returned to Delhi from Goa and a routine inspection found that its nosewheel was damaged.
The investigators then analysed the data of the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) of the aircraft, which the sources claimed, showed that the lady captain had used the wrong landing technique that caused the nosewheel damage. Following the probe, it was also found that the papers of Capt Gulati were not in order and enquiries into them showed that the documents, required for getting a flying license, were forged, the sources claimed.
IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh said that the January incident was reported to DGCA and the airline had itself instituted an Investigation Board, whose findings were "accepted by DGCA". He said the pilot was not only sent to DGCA for corrective training but de-rostered last month itself. "It was only last Thursday we were informed that there are some discrepancies in the license issued to her by the DGCA 2-3 years ago.
As an airline, we can only rely on DGCA license and records.So we will follow DGCA instructions on this issue as well," Ghosh said. "We are requesting DGCA to conduct a thorough inquiry to ensure that there are no discrepancies in any other licences or certificates issued by it to any pilot, engineer or cabin attendant. We will proactively assist the aviation regulator in this matter as there is absolutely no compromise on safety," he added.
