PIA sacks 150 pilots over fake licenses

Pakistan’s state-run airline Pakistan International Airlines has sacked 150 pilots over cheating on their exams in the wake of the Karachi crash of an A320 that killed 98 people in May. Pakistan International Airlines spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said that “such unqualified pilots will never fly aircraft again.” The sacking comes in the wake of the statement by the country’s Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan that 262 out of 860 Pakistani pilots had “fake” licences through bribing other qualified pilots to take the exams. In a statement, IATA said; “We are 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. We are trying to obtain more information on the matter.” According to Indian Link after the incident, an investigation team was created by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) led by the president of the Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board (AAIB), Air Commodore Usman Ghani. "On the condition of anonymity, some aviation industry authorities say the airlines knew about the scandal two years ago and had fired four pilots for the same issue," reported Indian Link. On May 22 flight PK8303 crashed killing 97. The pilots made a completely unacceptable approach according to Juan Browne, a 777 pilot (blancolirio on Youtube), who said that the Flighradar 24 data showed that the pilots of the A320 descended at twice the normal rate and went across the runway threshold at 210kts (388km/hr) well above the recommended 140kts (259km/hr).