Pakistan Fires Pilots Who Cheated on Pilot Exams: Because Apparently That's Something That Can Happen In Real Life
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's national carrier is firing 28 pilots found to have tainted licenses, the company's spokesman said Wednesday, the latest chapter in a scandal that emerged in the wake of the Airbus A320 crash in Karachi in May.
An inquiry into the May 22 crash that killed 97 people on board resulted in the stunning revelation that 260 of 860 pilots in Pakistan had cheated on their pilots exams, but were still given licences by the Civil Aviation Authority.
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This is bad. I mean this baaaaaad. I mean this would be a headline in any country, but in one that’s recently had some truly terrible airline disasters… that’s no bueno my friends.
Obviously I was incorrect. But I assumed that pilot exams were un-cheatable. Like, I figured there were a number of safeguards in place to guarantee that we kept the dummies out and got the aces in. If we don’t, let’s get on those. Last thing I need is some jabroni who couldn’t pass an eye exam and failed his driving test flying me through a hailstorm. I feel like there should be enough hoops you have to leap through as a pilot that it’s just not possible to cheat. I also assumed that were parts of flying that are just not in the realm of things you can cheat at, like landing a plane, or not crashing into a mountain. That feels hard to fake.
I have some, albeit slight, confidence that you could teach yourself how to drive. I mean sure we’ve all got driving instructors but they’re really just working that assistant break, or making you drive them to McDonald’s- I don’t blame them by the way, call it one of the perks. But there’s a number of scenarios in a car where if you fuck up, you’re only endangering yourself. That is not the case with planes. If you mix up the autopilot with the eject button, or the windshield wipers with the off button, lots of people are going to die. Of all the tests
