Flying schools using obsolete aircraft

Mumbai: Flying schools charge exorbitant fees to budding pilots. But new facts revealed in an RTI reply shows that accidents abound at these flying schools, causing deaths and destruction to aircraft. The RTI also shows the schools are using phased out aircraft, and throws up questions on the quality of instructors and maintenance at the schools.
Every year, some 1800 students obtain a CPL or commercial pilots license from India’s flying schools.
A look at the reply to RTI lays bare the quality of the training of these pilots: the DGCA’s list of accidents over the last five years at flying schools shows one to three major accidents per year, in which aircraft are being “destroyed”, or the damage is ‘substantial’ resulting in 2 deaths in 2008; 1 death in 2009 and two deaths in 2010.
The reasons for the crashes, as revealed in the RTI point directly at poor quality of instructors.
“Delayed corrective action by instructor”, “failure to notice high tension cables causing landing gear to get entangled” or “not adhering to Standard Operating Procedure” are just some of the reasons. The accidents are leading to “killing both instructor and pilot” or “both receiving serious injuries”.
The RTI also reveals these schools are using “phased out” aircraft. All but one aircraft destroyed or damaged in training is a Cessna 152: a model of aircraft phased out in 1985, 25 years ago.
The other aircraft destroyed is a Cessna 172R model, phased out in the 1990s.
Experts agree that lack of its maintenance at these schools is the key cause for the accidents.
06/12/10 Raksha Shetty/CNN-IBN