Govt suspends former director of Flying Training Anil Gill

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The central government on November 22 suspended former director of Flying Training Anil Gill, effective immediately.

"The President in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (1) of Rule 10 of the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, hereby places the said Capt. Anil Gill posted in Directorate of Aerosports under suspension with immediate effect," said DGCA in an official statement.

Gill's suspension comes after a recommendation by a vigilance committee established by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducted its preliminary investigation into allegations of corruption.

Anil Gill, former Director of the Flying and Training Division (DFT) at the DGCA, is alleged to have misused his authority to obtain three aircraft as bribes from flying schools.

The complaint, which was submitted to the DGCA on October 25, claimed that Gill had used his position to compel pilots and flying schools—technically known as flying training organisations, or FTOs—to pay kickbacks to businesses associated with him in exchange for his company's promise to turn a blind eye if the pilots' actions were discovered to have broken regulations.

"There is zero tolerance towards malpractices. Any such issue will always be dealt with the strictest measures in accordance with the law," says Union Civil Aviation minister.

In some cases, FTOs that could not pay the bribe Gill sought sold their aircraft at “nominal prices” to the companies linked to him -- Bluethroat Aero Global and Sabres Corporate Solutions. These companies would then lease these mostly light aircraft for flight training to other FTOs at rates in the vicinity of Rs 90 lakh a year.

As DFT, Gill was authorised to approve FTOs, where training is necessary for someone to become eligible for a commercial pilot licence.

The complaints against Gill surfaced after five aircraft of Redbird Aviation, the largest flight school have crash landed in last six months due to engine failure.

Investigations have found that the planes were not maintained properly and the trainers were not complying with critical safety rules of DGCA.

Company records showed that two companies called Blue Throat Aviation and Sabres Corporate Solutions Limited which has Gill’s sister-in-law and borther-in-law as directors have leased at least two aircraft to Redbird Aviation. The aircraft VT-EUC, VT-AAY are Cessna aircraft which are popular among flight training schools.

Last year, when DGCA had audited all flying training schools of India after multiple accidents, Gill was in-charge of the process.

In 2019, the DGCA had directed its officers not audit or investigate companies where there is conflict of interest.

On November 22, DGCA on Wednesday suspended the authorisation of RedBird Flight Training Academy for carrying out maintenance of its aircraft after finding deficiencies in an audit carried out in the wake of two incidents of crash landing last month.

After the two incidents of aircraft crash landing within a span of one week in October, the DGCA suspended the operations of Redbird Flight Training Academy at all its bases.

A special maintenance audit was carried out at the training academy's main base in Baramati, Maharashtra and at four sub-bases in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh; Kalburgi and Belgavi in Karnataka; and Lilabari, Assam.

"The findings from the special maintenance audit revealed deficiencies in personnel training, maintenance schedules and records, internal audit practices, tool and store management and fuel storage and handling," DGCA said in a release.