Vietnam grounds Pakistani pilots over dubious licenses

Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAV) on Monday announced that it had grounded all Pakistani pilots working in the country over concerns that they have used unfair means in achieving their authorizations.

The CAAV released a statement on Monday, “the head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has ordered a suspension for all Pakistani pilots working for Vietnamese airlines”.

Last week, the decision for the grounding of 262 airline pilots were taken in Pakistan whose licenses may have been forged, after IATA— global airlines body said that irregularities found in pilots’ licenses at Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) highlighted a “serious lapse” in safety controls.

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Meanwhile, the suspension order from Vietnamese authorities will be in effect until further notice from CAAV, it said, adding that they are in coordination with Pakistani authorities to review the pilots’ profiles.

“Vietnam had licensed 27 Pakistani pilots, and 12 of them were still active, while the other 15 pilots’ contracts had expired or were inactive due to the coronavirus pandemic,”according to the CAAV.

CAAV further said that out of the 12 active pilots, “11 were working for budget airlines Vietjet Aviation and one for Jetstar Pacific”— a unit of the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways were not using any pilots from Pakistan, the CAAV said.

Vietnamese airlines currently have 1,260 pilots, with nearly half of them holding foreign citizenship, CAAV added.