PAKISTANI PILOTS GROUNDED FOR CHEATING ON EXAM

Pakistan’s state-run airline is grounding at least 150 pilots, accusing them of obtaining their pilot licenses by having others take exams for them. The move follows a probe into last month’s plane crash that killed 97 people in Karachi, where the pilots forgot to put the landing gear down. The country’s aviation minister, discussing a probe into the crash, said 262 out of 860 Pakistani pilots had “fake” licenses. Another official said an unspecified number of people who had the skills to fly a plane but lacked technical knowledge had in the past bribed qualified persons to take exams for them. Meanwhile, Abdullah Hafeez, a spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines, said, “We will make it sure that such unqualified pilots never fly aircraft again.” He said the safety of passengers was the airline’s top priority.
* … now.
* C’mon, everybody cheats. What’s it gonna hurt?
* If only there could be, I don’t know, like a “beep” sound in the cockpit when you’re landing without landing gear?
* How’d you like to be up in a Pakistan Airlines plane right now reading this story?
* Wonder how many of their surgeons are fake?