Almost 1 in 3 pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses

[LimSlip]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/25/business/st...

Pretty shocked to read this, I (probably naively) thought that commercial aviation was very tightly regulated.

Edit: PH filter managed to get offended by the URL

[Chuck328]

In the first world, it is.

(perhaps a derogatory statement but it's a fact. If your nations aviation authority lacks that much oversight.....third world)

[Tony1963]

Does this suggest that flying an airliner is only difficult when the brown stuff meets the turbofan?

[Sheets Tabuer]

It was the same in Coventry with taxis.

[Simpo Two]

Basically, life is cheaper in some places.

[KrazyIvan]

Sheets Tabuer said:

It was the same in Coventry with taxis.

Yeah cos that's exactly the same thing

[J4CKO]

Hopefully a proportion of all the actual pilots on the bench at the moment can get a job with PIA in place of the fake ones.

Sometimes in life, you need to do things properly and piloting an airliner is one of those.

[DAVEVO9]

LimSlip said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/25/business/st...

Pretty shocked to read this, I (probably naively) thought that commercial aviation was very tightly regulated.

Edit: PH filter managed to get offended by the URL

I am not shocked.

Pakistan is absolutely swamped in fraud, in just about everything you can think of. Corrupt and bent to the core

[Zed Ed]

A while back my airline pilot mate shared with me his list of regions whose airlines he would fly. I am certain Pakistani airlines did not feature.

[steveo3002]

wonder if their mechanics and spare parts are legit too

[nikaiyo2]

LimSlip said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/25/business/st...

Pretty shocked to read this, I (probably naively) thought that commercial aviation was very tightly regulated.

Edit: PH filter managed to get offended by the URL

It is.

I think the headline is very "click batey."

The PIA pilots with "fake" qualifications will be pilots but will have incorrect type qualifications or faked check flights etc. Not that one day they were driving a tuk-tuk the next sat in seat of an A320 wondering what the flashing lights do.

[towser44]

This was news a few weeks ago, it's why their airlines have been banned from flying into Europe for 6 months.

[Mikebentley]

Sheets Tabuer said:

It was the same in Coventry with taxis.

This deserves more recognition.

[fatboy b]

KrazyIvan said:

Sheets Tabuer said:

It was the same in Coventry with taxis.

Yeah cos that's exactly the same thing

You’ve not been in a Cov taxi then?

[anonymous-user]

nikaiyo2 said:

LimSlip said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/25/business/st...

Pretty shocked to read this, I (probably naively) thought that commercial aviation was very tightly regulated.

Edit: PH filter managed to get offended by the URL

It is.

I think the headline is very "click batey."

The PIA pilots with "fake" qualifications will be pilots but will have incorrect type qualifications or faked check flights etc. Not that one day they were driving a tuk-tuk the next sat in seat of an A320 wondering what the flashing lights do.

As with many of these stories, they’re not usually someone with no training and a fake license. It’s often that they’ve not completed an exam or got someone to do it or they’ve falsified something or something is out of date.

Still pretty worrying but the article is a bit sensationalist.

Some countries (and their regulatory bodies) are definitely worse for it and stopping it than others though but in the U.K. there’s been isolated examples of this happening also. The CAA and U.K. airlines however seem to be much more effective in regulating U.K. aviation than the Pakistani equivalents.

[anonymous-user]

towser44 said:

This was news a few weeks ago, it's why their airlines have been banned from flying into Europe for 6 months.

And loads of other places.

[illmonkey]

steveo3002 said:

wonder if their mechanics and spare parts are legit too

No, they get knockoffs from EuroPlaneParts.com

[Siko]

Issue isn’t exactly unknown here too. I know of a pilot who was dismissed for faking his initial IR (in a foreign country). Said pilot was flying quite happily on the line and only got caught out in his pre-command check of his documents. So you could argue his licence was ‘fake’ but he was certainly competent enough. Also strongly suspect another pilot of making up his initial hours - he had done his hours building in a foreign country, had no evidence and somehow ‘lost’ his first logbook and couldn’t remember where he did his training. He jumped before he was pushed and no longer flies afaik.

My opinion is that the majority of time it was pilots building hours abroad or doing IRs at smaller foreign companies that were most likely to be fraudulent.

I could go on....I know of many more instances here. Point I’m making is don’t laugh at the foreigners - this goes on everywhere but is certainly rarer here.

Edit: chap I know from the military lied about being a Captain, got a job as a Captain despite only ever having been an FO and used Jabba the hut as his fake referee😂 Quite an interesting legal history if you google his name:
https://www.baineswilson.co.uk/news/2407-jabba-the...

Edited by Siko on Friday 24th July 11:38

[IanH755]

steveo3002 said:

wonder if their mechanics and spare parts are legit too

Rarely! We have a huge problem trying to rout out all the various "fake" qualifications that we regularly see in trainees out here in the Middle East, where "cheating" for a Qualification is a far more widely accepted cultural norm than it would be back in the UK. The Arab times ran numerous stories discussing this issue across the whole area (which is causing huge issues now younger people are moving to Western countries and being "found out") and the general consensus amongst Uni students interviewed was over 53% saw cheating as being perfectly OK, with reasons given being things like "if the teacher tricks us with a difficult question then he has effectively cheated, so we can cheat on him" or more commonly "I need XY Qual to do XY job so I bought XY Qual because it would be unfair to me if I can't get XY job which I want" etc.

steveo3002 said:

wonder if their mechanics and spare parts are legit too

Spare parts are usually legit as in "it's not a fake" but things like the "Lifing" details (now many times it can be used before maintenance work) can be fudged to save money, as it's a bit like clocking a car - buy item which says it's done 1200 landings, check the history with the factory and it's actually done 5000 and they get scrapped at 6000 etc. It's fairly rare but does happen.

[Sahjahd]

The story is not surprising. I am not a pilot, but did arrive to England from Karachi 30 years ago. At that time the driving test comprised departing the test centre, driving a few hundred yards before stopping to listen to the examiner's tale of woe and how much he appreciated the tips offered by successful candidates. The problem is that even responsible jobs in Pakistan offer inadequate salary for life without other income, the choice is corruption or hunger.