Airliners-India.com

karatecatman · Guest

The Delhi High Court has sought an explanation from Ministry of Civil Aviation on a petition complaining that pilots have been empowered to issue fitness certificates to aircraft which is essentially a specialised job of an engineer, says a UNI report.
Justice B D Ahmed has asked the Director General of Civil Aviation to file the report within four weeks on a petition filed by Air India and Indian Airlines Engineers’ Association challenging the April 4 amended Civil Aviation Regulation (CAR) empowering pilots instead of Engineers to issue ’Transit Certificate’ to hopping flights.
Appearing for the petitioners, counsel L M Lahoty referred to the recent instances of emergency landing of some flights due to technical faults and argued these incidents happened due to certificate issued by pilots.
Lahoty submitted that engineers were technical experts as they were BAMEC degree-holders and they used to issue the certificate of air worthiness and release certificate. However, the recent regulation empowered the pilots who were not technically sound.
Urging the Court to quash the MCA’s regulation, Lahoty contended the government had come under the pressure of private airlines and brought this regulation, which would prove disastrous.