CAAB revokes licence of Biman pilots Sadia, Al-Mehedi

The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh has revoked the private and commercial pilot licences of Biman Bangladesh Airlines' first officer Sadia Ahmed and the commercial pilot licence of first officer Al-Mehedi Islam for forging their academic certificate and other documents.

The regulatory authority made the decision recently following an investigation against the two.

CAAB issued a notification in this regard on December 21 which was signed by Air Commodore Shah Kawsar Ahmed Choudhury, member of flight standards & regulations of CAAB.

Al-Mehedi was also fined Tk 10 lakh. Besides, legal action is under process against Sadia Ahmed, CAAB said in the notification.

CAAB also requested all carriers and organisations to take necessary measures to verify the academic certificates before submitting the application for licence.

After The Daily Star published a report on anomalies in pilot recruitment in March last year, Biman suspended Sadia.

In February, Biman recruited a batch of contractual pilots to fly its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, claiming that it needed pilots immediately due to a shortage.

A year later, only five of the batch of 14 have taken to the air. The rest were lost in a quagmire of forged certificates, incompetence, and failed licensing exams.

Its own operation manual mandates that to fly the Boeing 777, the world's largest passenger jet in production, all first officers must have at least 300 flying hours in the preceding two years under their belt.

None of the recruits met that criterion.

According to a document of Biman dated February 13 last year, of the 14 recruited, only four captains and a first officer passed all the tests to fly the plane.

Sadia had submitted a forged educational certificate, claiming that she was a student of the science group during her higher secondary school exams.

Data retrieved from the Dhaka Board of Education, however, shows that she was a student of humanities, passing in second division from Shaheed Anwar Girls' College.

The CAAB rulebook mandates that all commercial pilots must have an educational qualification of HSC (Science) or equivalent with mandatory physics and mathematics.

Biman insiders said Sadia got appointed in Biman under the influence of her husband, Captain Sazid Ahmed who was removed from the post of chief of training following several allegations of irregularities including harassing female cockpit crew members.

On the other hand, Al Mehdi Islam, who was selected as a first officer, submitted a fake Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) certificate.

He submitted this certificate by forging the signature of the assistant director (flight safety department) of CAAB.