An epileptic pilot could be flying you

MUMBAI: Desperate situations seem tocall for desperate measures. Faced with an acute shortage of qualified pilots inthe country, a low-cost airline based in north India has thrown caution to thewinds and allowed two of its commanders to fly despite medical conditions thatdeem them unfit for the cockpit job.The more blatant of the twocases is that of an Indian commander in his forties. He lost his AirlineTransport Pilot’s Licence after failing an EEG (the test needed to verifyif a person is prone to epileptic fits) but then claimed Rs 50 lakh as insurancemoney for loss of licence and then rejoined the airline with a fresh US licence."They do not have an EEG for a pilot's medical test in the US. Healso probably did not mention his medical condition in the test there. What isshocking is that the airline, despite knowing that the pilot was prone toepileptic attacks, took him back," an airline official said. "Wewill look into the matter. How can he fly in India if he failed medicals here?"said director-general of civil aviation Kanu Gohain.The other caseinvolves a 60-plus US citizen who has only one kidney; that, too, is borrowed.Medical practitioners say he can be deemed fit to fly but needs to go throughtests before flying.Aviation industry insiders say the growingdemand for experienced pilots will only prompt airlines to be more lenient insuch cases. "After the retirement age was increased from 60 to 65 in2004, retirements froze for a while as 60-plus commanders continued to fly. Butthere will be a spate of retirements in 2009. It's also the time when thecountry will need every single experienced commander it has," Capt YashrajTongia of Yash Air, a flying school in Ujjain, said.The pilot whorejoined the airline armed with an American licence took advantage of one simplerule: aspiring pilots did not have to undergo an EEG test for clearing themedicals in the US.Airline industry insiders admit it is a blatantcase of bending the rules with impunity. "DGCA had cancelled his licence to flybecause of his epileptic condition. But the airline recruited him again lastmonth despite knowing his medical condition," an airline official said.