Scandal hits Pakistani airline

Pilots grounded amid allegations of licensing test cheating

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s staterun airline said Thursday it will ground 150 pilots, accusing them of obtaining licenses by having others take exams for them, an accusation that followed a probe into last month’s crash that killed 97 people in Karachi.

Abdullah Hafeez, a spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines, did not give additional details about the cheating but said a process to fire the pilots had been started.

“We will make it sure that such unqualified pilots never fly aircraft again,” he said.

Alarmed over the situation, the International Air Transport Association said it was following reports from Pakistan “regarding fake pilot licenses, which are concerning and represent a serious lapse in the licensing and safety oversight by the aviation regulator.”

The global airline organization said it was seeking more information.

The move by PIA to ground the pilots comes a day after the country’s aviation minister, Ghulam Sarqar Khan, said 262 out of 860 Pakistani pilots had “fake” licenses. He made the revelation while presenting preliminary findings of a probe to parliament into the May 22 Airbus A320 crash.

The announcement stunned lawmakers present in the National Assembly and shocked family members of passengers who died last month when Flight PK8303 went down after departing from the eastern city of Lahore, crashing in a congested residential area in Karachi.

The crash killed 97 people, including all the crew members. There were two survivors on board, and a girl died on the ground.

Neither Khan nor Hafeez released additional details about the methods used by the pilots to wrongfully obtain licenses to fly commercial planes. Khan said only that they did not take examinations themselves to get the required certificates, which are issued by the civil aviation authority.

In presenting preliminary findings of the crash probe to parliament Wednesday, Khan said the pilot, before making his first failed landing attempt, did not pay attention to warnings from the air control tower when he was told the plane was too high to land. But Khan said the pilot and co-pilot were medically fit and qualified to fly.