CAA clears 96 Pakistani pilots’ licenses

KARACHI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has cleared and verified the licenses of 96 pilots out of the 104 names received from various foreign counterparts and international airlines.

In a letter to the director for air traffic control services at Oman’s Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA), Mubarak Saleh al-Gheilani, CAA Director-General Hassan Nasir Jamy said it was crucial “to clarify that all CPL / ATPL pilot licenses issued by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) are genuine and validly issued”.

“None of the Pilot Licenses are fake, rather the matter has been misconstrued and incorrectly highlighted in the media / social media,” Jamy’s letter read further.

“The PCAA has already verified/cleared 96 Pakistani pilots out of 104 names received from various civil aviation authorities / foreign airlines (UAE / GACA, Vietnam Airlines, Bahrain Air, Civil Aviation Malaysia, Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department and Turkish Airlines)” it added.

In his letter, the CAA officials apprised his Omani counterparts of the license verification process of Pakistani pilots working in foreign airlines.

Stressing that all licenses issued to pilots by the CAA were certified and genuine, he noted that some international airlines had sought verification of 104 Pakistani pilots, of whom eight were yet to be cleared.

In the forensic scrutiny, the CAA official stressed, some discrepancies had arisen during the computerized examination of the licensing process, leading the body to ground the suspected pilots and take them off from flying duties.

The ‘suspect’ pilots have been asked to defend their licenses in accordance with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Rules, 1994.

Jamy’s letter further added, “All this was done keeping in view the highest concerns about air safety all over the world, and also to ensure that questions raised in respect of an identified class of pilots do not prejudice hundreds of Pakistani pilots flying aircraft most professionally and safely within and outside Pakistan.”

Earlier, the CAA had cleared the licenses of 18 Pakistani pilots working for Oman’s SalamAir after the Gulf nation’s civil aviation authority requested verification.

Separately, the CAA had also cleared three Pakistani pilots associated with the Hong Kong Airlines after it asked for clearance of their licenses.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (PALPA) has said that no pilot in Pakistan possesses a dubious airline transport pilot license (ATPL).