IAF mulling lending pilots to civil carriers

Shillong: Facing desertions by its pilots, IAF was contemplating to ‘depute’ some of its senior pilots to the Air India and other civil carriers for a short period.
“We are in contact with Air India and others on how we can give some of our pilots to them on deputation for a year or two,” Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Air Command (AOC-in-C), Air Marshal F H Major said here yesterday.
Making it clear that IAF trained its pilots to fight war and not to fly commercial planes, air marshal major said an officer upto the rank of ‘Group Captain’ has got 15-20 years of experience in flying. “So we are thinking of how we can give some pilots to Air India and others on deputation.”
Seeking to downplay the desertions by the pilots in the IAF, he said it was ‘not alarming’, though some might have left the IAF.
11/10/06 Zee News