Clearing the Air 

Four pilot impersonators, including Air India Captain JK Verma and Indigo’s Parminder Kaur discussed in the video below, were caught flying without proper licenses which has led to a countrywide pilot probe, seeking more fake pilots and shady flight schools. It has been discovered that bogus certificates were used to endow pilots with licenses. Sham pilots were found to be flying for Air India. Pilot Arjun Giare was caught cheating on in US pilots and his US license cancelled, but is currently flying for Air India. Discrepancies were found in certificates from a school in Delhi, the Chinmaya Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School in Vasant Vihar. Some flying schools appear to be sanctioning fake pilots; it is not known if this school is one of them.

The falsified documents have forced the India’s aviation authorities to examine 4000 pilot licenses for irregularities. Although the director general of civil aviation, Baharat Bhushan said that fake licenses are few, how can he know this is true before the investigation? There is a documented history of corruption, including 57 pilots who were being prosecuted for drunkenness on duty.

With no disrespect for the decedents who are not here to defend themselves, for the sake of those passengers who lost their lives, this is just a question that requires examination:

What about the licenses of Captain Zlatko Glušica, and first officer H.S. Ahluwalia—the pilots in the Air India Express Flight 812 crash in May of 2010—were they legitimate? Plato said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” We can not be children and avoid the truth. We can not be afraid of knowing. For the sake of those who are now lost, and in the interest of justice, we need to shine the light of truth into that May 2010 cockpit, and in fact all cockpits where a pretender may be placing lives at risk..