Malaysia reinstates Pakistani pilots after license verification

The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) has said that the licenses of all 18 Pakistani pilots working for local airlines have been verified.

The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) confirmed the authenticity of the licenses of all pilots employed in Malaysia, the CAAM statement said.

The CAAM said all 18 suspended pilots in Malaysia have been reinstated.

Earlier this month, Malaysia’s aviation regulator temporarily suspended all Pakistani-licensed pilots employed by local airlines.

It may be recalled that Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan had disclosed in Parliament that 262 pilots of Pakistan International Airlines had obtained ‘suspicious’ licenses, after which aviation authorities of different countries had issued notices to Pakistani pilots working there.

The CAAM later said in a statement that the decision to suspend was made after examining all foreign pilots in Malaysia.

The CAAM said the pilots worked with local operators such as flying schools, flying clubs and training organizations.

The CAAM said he was working with his Pakistani counterpart to verify the license holders, including the pilot, passport number, Pakistani pilot license number, CAAM verification number (if available) and Malaysian license. Change of – PPL / CPL / ATPL number is being checked.

In an email to the Pakistan Aviation Authority, they said that currently, all operators have to temporarily suspend their pilots from flight operations whose licenses were issued by Pakistan and this will be the case till then.” Until their license is verified by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA). “Once the verification process is complete, CAAM will notify operators immediately for their reinstatement,” CAAM added.

The issue of ‘suspicious’ pilot licenses

While presenting the investigation report of the Karachi passenger plane crash in the National Assembly on June 24, Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan had said that out of 860 pilots, 262 were found to have been replaced by someone else.

After which, on June 26, Pakistan grounded the pilots’ licenses for alleged forgery in the exams, calling them ‘suspicious’.

After which the PIA administration decided to ground 150 of its pilots.

Later, on June 29, the Aviation Authority of Vietnam grounded all Pakistani pilots for local airlines over concerns by international regulators about having “suspicious licenses” for pilots.

Following this, on June 30, the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) temporarily suspended the European International Airlines (PIA) European Air License for six months, effective July 3. ۔

On the same day, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) removed the Pakistani airline from its ‘recommended list’.

Following this, on July 1, the Civil Aviation Authority of the United Kingdom announced a ban on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights from its three airports, while the United Arab Emirates also operated with the Civil Aviation Authority in various airlines requested verification of data of Pakistani pilots and engineers.