Have power will ‘fly’!

You know how we are, right? A free meal is something that pleases us to no end, let’s be honest about that. We feel lucky. But then, there are people who believe that freebies are their birthright. Who are they, you ask? They are our very own Babus. 

Babus, who? Babus, who run the show. Not the typical pot-bellied, pan-spitting ones, mind you. Today, Babus come in all shapes and sizes, right from the ones dressed in the 4-day-old shirt, to the ones in crisp suits and polished shoes, sporting their Ray Bans and doing their smooth talk.

We know DGCA, right? Directorate General for Civil Aviation. Now, they have flight operations inspectors (FOIs), who are required to carry out ‘surprise’ visits, to survey the condition of aircrafts. Now this sounds fine, but then, it seems that the surveys are not all that a surprise after all. In fact, these serve as free tickets to them whenever they please, especially during the weekends.

This came to light when an airline company found that there was a particular flight that no pilot was willing to hop on. Upon further investigation, it was revealed that there had been a couple of instances when an FOI had boarded a flight and being a former pilot himself, entered the cockpit and acted all pricey.

You wouldn’t have assumed that it’s the end of the story, I’m sure. Yes, there’s more. These FOIs have to be picked up from their residence in a luxury car and also have to be dropped back. It’s a return freebie, silly! 
Now, the thing is, they aren’t authorised to ‘conduct’ these surveillance trips, unless they have sought permission from the DGCA. Unfortunately, the Babu syndrome has just caught up with everyone and these FOIs have been using these trips to go on free flight trips to their hometowns and places where they have business interests.

Despite putting a stern system in place, nothing has changed. In fact, as per a Times of India report, between 2009 and 2012, 2,750 free air tickets were issued by Indian carriers to DGCA officials. Of this, only 311 tickets were used for official purposes.

Aah well, classic case of misuse. Classic.