Do expat pilots increase crash risks?

The issue of expat pilots being hired by Indian air carriers has been brewing for some years now. Saturday’s crash has brought it into sharper focus with many aviation experts squarely putting the blame on the Serbian flight commander of the Z Glusicea (53).

The argument being put forth by them against foreign pilots manning the domestic flights is that they are not adequately familiar with the Indian airfields and weather.

“Their (expat pilots) accent has also been the cause of some of the airport mishaps and near misses. If you look at the history of bungling by the pilots at local airports, most of them have involved expat pilots,” said Bijoy Pandey, Air Marshal (retired).  

Indian carriers have been importing pilots from Russia, the Czech Republic and East European countries to meet the shortfall of experienced pilots in the country. Lately, pilot unions and some aviation associations have raised their voice against this practice. They argue that today, India had enough experienced pilots available locally.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had intervened by issuing a directive to airlines to phase out expat pilots by July this year. This deadline, however, has been extended by another one year on request of airlines, who are on expansion mode due to the recent upswing in demand.

The latest data put out by the ministry of civil aviation reveals that around 600 expat pilots are employed by domestic airlines.
Air Marshal Pandey, who has trained many Indian IAF pilots, questioned skill levels of overseas pilots recruited by Indian carriers: “Most of them are rejects from their country. They come to India only because they are unemployed in their countries.

They are brought on fancy salaries,”Capt Mohan Ranganathan, an aviation expert, said the airline regulatory body DGCA needs to make its norms for importing foreign pilots more stringent to monitor the quality of pilots.

He said that currently, the type experience for an expat flight commander is 100 hours while it is 1000 hours for an Indian commander.  The type experience is the number of hours put in by the pilot in flying a particular type of aircraft. Capt Ranganathan said this discriminative gap needed to be bridged.

“It (type experience for foreign pilots) should not be less than 1000 hours.  In countries like Singapore and Emirates, a commander requires more than 3000 hours of type experience and 7000 hours of flying experience,” he said.

K Gohain, former joint director of DGCA, feels that this view that expat pilots are ill-equipped for Indian flying does not hold water. “These pilots are trained in leading flying academies in their country. They are certified by their country and India. After that they are screened by Indian airlines hiring them on route familiarity and other aspects.”