DGCA protecting a Habitual Offender

Whenever an incident takes place in the Indian aviation industry, the official regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) investigates the matter and the pilot, crew member or the accountable official of any commercial airline, state government’s Civil Aviation Department or private charter airline is punished.

But there have been several instances where DGCA has given nominal punishment to the guilty despite serious violations. Such favours are given by the regulator to those violators who are hand in glove with them. On the other hand DGCA officials, to protect themselves, punish the innocent too.

But whenever the corrupt officials of DGCA intend to help an aviator, they overlook serious violations for obvious reasons. The classic example of this is the case pertaining to Captain H S Virdi, a pilot with a private charter company. This habitual offender has ensured that he can get away with serious violations by jeopardising the security and safety of the aircraft and the people flying in it. This pilot is confident about getting away with petty punishments for serious violations as his company is hired by the high and mighty of the land.

This pilot was in news in 2016 when he flew the then Chief Minster of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, without undergoing a mandatory Breath Analyser Test (BA Test) on 6 occasions as reported by DGCA official of Mumbai to DGCA (HQ). The blame, that time, was put on the state Civil Aviation Department as they failed to provide the BA Test equipment. Whereas the fact is that it is the duty of the pilot to ensure that the BA test is conducted before flying.

As per the rules, the punishment for such violation for the first time offender, is suspension for a period of minimum three months. But in the case of Capt. Virdi, his 6 violations were not counted. Interestingly, Capt. Virdi once again violated the BA Test on 17 February 2022, he was suspended for a period of only one month. But after complaints by a Kalchakra’s Managing Editor, Rajneesh Kapur, the suspension was increased for three months. Aviation experts feel that this being Virdi’s seventh violation he should have been suspended for a period of three years, as per the rules of DGCA. But due to the reasons best known to the officials of DGCA, this suspension was considered as the first violation.

Surprisingly, the same set of DGCA officials give a very harsh punishment to the people with much less serious violations. Shouldn’t this be investigated by the order of Minister Civil Aviation. One needs to question the double standards in DGCA. Why are the DGCA officials sitting over the matter of Capt. Virdi’s 6 BA test violations that were reported to them in the audit conducted in April 2022?

The habitual offender Capt. Virdi did another mischief. During his suspension period he carried a IR/PPC check on 3 March 2022. As per the rules once a pilot is suspended he can not undergo an IR/PPC check. It was illegal for him to do so. Surprisingly, when Rajneesh Kapur reported this matter to the DGCA, the officials with an intention to help Virdi, got the date of suspension changed from 17th February 2022 to 4th March 2022, a date after the IR/PPC was done.

On inquiry a senior official of DGCA said that “IR/PPC could be carried out during suspension period”. One would question, if this is the case then why was the date of suspension changed in a slimy manner? The intention of the DGCA officials to go out of the way to help Virdi is clear from the corrigendum issued in this regard, on 25 May 2022.

Smelling the rampant corruption in DGCA, Rajneesh Kapur, vide his letter dated 28 May 2022, wrote to the Vigilance Department of MoCA, DGCA and also to the Central Vigilance Commission, to take immediate appropriate action against the guilty officials.

Capt. Virdi has also been involved in a case of Altitude Burst which is a very heinous crime in the aviation sector. As alleged, due to his close proximity with the regulator, the inquiry is under wraps and conclusion/verdict is still awaited. Sources also reveal that he has operated to class C aerodromes such as Leh, Kabul, Kandhar. A special training is required to operate at these aerodromes, which was never done by Capt. Virdi.

Aviation experts feel that until and unless the DGCA is headed by technocrats, such incidents will continue to take place or May increase as the punishments given by the bureaucrats are normally very lenient. This is done at the risk of lives of air passengers.

As per the DGCA records such incidents have increased during the past few years due to the absence of strict punishments given by the regulator. Be it the commercial airline sector, private charter companies, state civil aviation departments or the aviation academies, if they enjoy a ‘good relation’ with DGCA, they are confident of getting away with petty punishments for serious violations.

Violators are not spared only if the incident is highlighted in the media, otherwise such serious incidents go unnoticed.

Considering the safety and security risks of the public and VVIPs in the aviation sector, it is high time that the Vigilance Department of MoCA and DGCA take a serious note of such incidents and investigate the corruption in this department and punish the guilty. This will send a strong signal in the aviation industry that safety and security is to be a top priority and there should be only one yard stick for measuring the similar violations.