Fake pilots

Fake pilots
We can well imagine the fate of passengers flying in aircraft commanded by those pilots and the co-pilots who have fake airline transport pilot's licence (‘Fake pilots case: Your flight is safe, assure airlines’, March 24). It is shocking that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has reported that between 3,000 and 4,000 of such licences are now under the scanner. The main reason for such sad state of affairs is the unbridled growth of the aviation sector in the past decade which has created a huge demand for pilots, with a simultaneous increase in the number of commanders. A commander earns at least twice as much as a co-pilot and hence it acts as an incentive for co-pilots to graduate as quickly as possible. While competitive fares have made flying affordable to the common people, the greed of these illegitimate commanders are now putting thousands of lives at risk. Worse, if it is proved that a pilot of any aircraft that meets with an accident had forged documents; neither the airline nor its passengers will be entitled for even insurance claims. The DGCA has to get to the bottom of this scandal and weed out all unscrupulous elements.
—Dilbag Rai, Chandigarh

II
Apropos ‘Pilots fudge records even on the job’ (March 27), the news is scary and will send chill down the spine of air travellers who are not aware whether the pilot flying the plane they are on is not one of the defaulters. They will be praying for their life despite paying a heavy fare to fly. The government should take a strict action in this matter to instill confidence in the air travellers and tourists before it is too late.
—Sudhakar Shenoy, Mumbai

The diva is no more
There was a time when Elizabeth Taylor moved the Hollywood world, but the fact is that the world will continue to move with or without its innumerable stars on its own. But once in a while, we do notice that one which shines better than others for a while in one of the many fields in the vast stretch of its ocean of immense possibilities of talents, contribution and skills.
—SR Devaprakash, Tumkur

Ignoring environment
This with reference to ‘Scathing affidavit on Lavasa likely’ (March 25), the EAC committee has clearly recommended that Lavasa corporation needs to rework the entire process of planning and development and submit a revised proposal. It clearly states that the project site has been selected with utter disregard to environmental issues. Under the garb of its hill town policy, the state government has ignored all the principles of sustainable development.  Having made such scathing remarks, how can the ministry of environment and forest (MOEF) allow Lavasa to get away on the ‘irreversible’ construction that has already taken place? Can such bailout stand scrutiny of the law ? The MOEF has a lot to answer to the public.
—J Harikant, via email

Good luck India!
By registering a convincing victory over the reigning champions Australia in the quarterfinal match at Ahmedabad, the Indian cricket team has redeemed its position as one of the best cricketing nations in the world (‘Pakistan, here we come’, March 25). The Indians played as a team, the bowlers took wickets at regular intervals and restricted Australia to 260, which was not a big target. Ricky Ponting deserves special praise for his contribution of 104 runs. Not only did our bowlers perform well but even our fielding was much better. The Indian batsmen played with great confidence and Yuvraj Singh once again stole the limelight. Sachin Tendulkar’s half century made him cross 18,000 runs and he continues to dominate the charts as the best batsman in the world. The nation is now eagerly looking forward to the same performance by the team when they meet Pakistan in the semi-final match at Mohali!
—KV Satyamurty, Mumbai

Fantastic victory
Instead of calling it a scintillating 10-wicket victory for Sri Lanka, I would rather call the result of the world cup quarter final of Sri Lanka vs England in Colombo as a humiliating, shameful 10-wicket drubbing for England (‘Eng stumble in SL world’, March 27). Butchered, battered and bruised, as you rightly reacted, England would now be licking its wounds, inflicted by Sri Lankans, in the company of underdogs like Kenya and Holland!
—KP Rajan, Mumbai