What Niz Goenkar N.Fernandes-London, has been telling us Goans about the Alemao Family Pilots
For more than a decade on at least 6,500 flights, Air India captain J. K. Verma welcomed passengers aboard and invited them to sit back and relax as he flew them to destinations across this expansive and fast-growing nation.
This week, Verma, who has flown for Air India since 1989, was exposed as a fraudster who obtained his job with India’s national carrier thanks to a forged commercial pilot’s licence that police say he bought for about $26,000.
But what’s even more shocking and alarming than Verma’s prolonged scam is that he may not be the only fraudster at the controls of a jumbo jet.
Police have arrested three other fake commercial pilots in recent weeks, and are on the hunt for a fifth. There may be many more. Authorities say they are combing through the records of 4,000 pilots employed by airlines here.
The scandal kicked off when Captain Parminder Kaur Gulati damaged the nose wheel of an Airbus A-320 while landing on Jan. 11 in Goa, India. An investigation revealed Gulati, a 38-year-old pilot with a no-frills airline called Indigo, had repeatedly landed in that manner, but her actions hadn’t been disclosed to airline regulators.
Following the investigation, it was discovered that Gulati’s papers were forged. Police have also accused at least three Jet Airways pilots and two SpiceJet pilots using fraudulent documents to secure a commercial pilot’s licence.
The fake pilots scam is the latest bit of sour news to drag down India’s surging but turbulent aviation industry, and it underscores the growing pains of a country that’s struggling to keep pace with demand for new airline routes even as it grapples with pressing problems like child malnutrition and the lack of proper sanitation.
The number of domestic air passengers in India has increased three-fold over the past five years to 50 million in 2010, industry analysts say. Airlines, which are operating on knife-thin margins, are struggling to ensure safety regulations are met.
Dilip Cherian, an official with Perfect Relations, a management consulting firm in New Delhi whose clients have included Jet Airways and Air India, called news of the arrests “frightening” and said the scandal’s roots may lie in “lax governance and a market which exploded with growth.”
Cherian said creating an electronically maintained roster of pilot licences and exam results might help to restore public confidence in the airlines.
After an Air India flight last May crashed in southern India, killed 158 people, authorities said the accident was due to pilot error. The Boeing 737 overshot a hilltop runway in Mangalore, one of India’s trickiest airports, on the southwestern coast, and the pilot may not have had enough training.
Many viewed the Air India crash as an isolated incident — until Gulati’s arrest sparked a flurry of questions over how qualified pilots here really are.
Following Gulati’s arrest, news channels were abuzz with the sensational disclosure earlier this month that 57 commercial pilots were found last year to have been drunk when they arrived for duty. While none were allowed into the cockpit after failing a breathalyzer, only 11 were fired.
Jet Airlines, a Star Alliance partner of Air Canada, which operates flights from India to Canada through Brussels, had 23 drunken pilots — tops among Indian airlines. None of those Jet pilots were fired, according to a statement released by aviation minister Vayalar Ravi.
Air India, which is the only Indian airline to operate a direct non-stop flight to Toronto, discovered six drunken pilots last year. None were fired.
The scandal seems far from over. Just this week, the case of Arjun Giare has surfaced. Giare, also a pilot for Air India, reportedly was caught with fake documents related to his pilot’s licence and suspended from flying in 2000 by the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority. But he subsequently returned to India and got another job with the national carrier.
Excerpt & Courtesy of Goan Observer-22/01/2011.
ReplyDeleteHow the ALEMAO`s promote themselves and their fake credentials and proffessions.
Who are they kidding.?
"AND A few stray thoughts and a few stray observations for yet another Sunday. For a Sunday following the week when newspapers in Goa, particularly the Herald, seemed to have made mega bucks from the Alemao family. For a Sunday following the week when the pathetic trauma care facilities in the state were again exposed. For a Sunday following the week when it looked as though Dr Edwin Gomes, who allegedly leaked the MBBS medicine papers, will get away scot free. For a Sunday following the week when, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Opinion Poll, there were renewed demands for life-sized statues of the late Jack Sequeira.
ALEMAO BONANZA
A few stray thoughts on the bonanza that newspapers have been reaping from politicians’ birthdays and, more specifically, the birthdays of the members of the Alemao family. In fact, on occasions when there is the birthday of a prominent politician or an aspiring member of the Legislative Assembly, there are more birthday ads than news in most of the newspapers, particularly Herald. First, it was pages and pages of ads on the occasion of the birthday of the patriarch of the Alemao family, Churchill Alemao. Then there were pages and pages to commemorate the birthday of the Urban Development Minister Joaquim Alemao. With the Alemao brothers determined to get the second generation into the Assembly, there was a mega supplement in the Herald on the occasion of the birthday of the son of Joaquim Alemao, Yuri.
The special advertorial that went with the full page specially designed advertisement talked about how much social work Yuri Alemao, who runs Joaquim Alemao’s mining empire, has done. And coyly suggesting that Yuri would make a very good MLA, if not MP. The Herald issue dated January 18, 2011 has a quarter page ad on the front page wishing advocate Valanka Alemao, ‘youth leader’, a very happy birthday from A&L partners from Vasco da Gama, whoever that may be. In the full page advertorial, there are photographs of the ‘humane social worker’, who is alleged to be the PWD Minister’s collection agent, with Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the UPA. There is also a photograph of Valanka with the former British prime minister, Gordon Brown, and film star Amitabh Bachchan."
The Alemao`s Pilots General exams-2004, in Indore.
ReplyDeleteSrl. No.
PILOT General Examination
Oct2004-Regular Session
EXAM : PPLG
Aircraft
125 12010005 P-04017741 Mr Kedar Nitin Jadhav 1 PVT
126 12010006 P-04017739 Mr Sahil Shiv Motaria 1 PVT
127 12010007 P-04017740 Mr Mrinal Prasad Barooah 1 PVT
128 12010008 P-03017047 Mr Saurabh Pandya 1 MPFC
129 12010009 P-03016725 Mr Karamveer Garcha 1 MPFC
130 12010010 P-03016667 Ms Kirti Bhilware 1 MPFC
131 12010011 P-04017659 Mr Savio Valen Alemao 1 PVT
132 12010012 P-04017658 Mr Yuri Lenonelllias Alemao 1 PVT
Goa has one drug dealing pilot then we have fake licensed pilot the Alemaos, Fake pilot license is a booming business in Indian Aviation History. Then we have corrupt illiterate politicians piloting Goan Politics.
ReplyDeleteThe Civil Aviation Authority of India is currently investigating 3000 ( Three Thousand) Pilot Licences.
ReplyDeleteIt is slowly being discovered that nearly all have been issued by forgery and also insued without comletion of the requisite or required "Flying Time".
The Alemaos have accquired theirs by corrupt means.It has been done to boost their "EGOS" and not for the love of the profession.
The Churchill family could very easily be compared to the Ghadaffi or Saddam Hussein family.Money buys them everything.
Their days wiill come.It took 42 years for Gaddafi to be taken to task.In due course the full background of this dictator will become evident.And so too will all the Alemaos.
Just as Gadaffi has a few loyal die hard supporters, Alemao`s have them too.
However it is not the views of the minority but the majority of Goans that will win and be justified in due course.
The damage Churchill has done to Goa cannot be measured.