Vietnamese airlines at Nội Bài International Airport. There are 27 pilots of Pakistani national working in Việt Nam. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Civil Aviation Administration of Việt Nam (CAAV) has reviewed and temporarily suspended 27 Pakistani pilots working at Vietnamese airlines following an internationally-shocking fake pilot license scandal in the South Asian country.

“All of the pilots are of Pakistani nationality and licensed in the country. These pilots are working at several airlines in Việt Nam,” CAAV General Director Đinh Việt Thắng talked to Vietnam News Agency.

Thắng added that there had been no case of a pilot obtaining a license from Pakistan as a citizen of another country.

“Currently, the CAAV is waiting for the results of a review from the Pakistani aviation authorities to determine whether those pilots have used a fake license or not,” Thắng said, adding that cases of legal licenses would continue to fly again.

There are reportedly about a thousand of foreign pilots working for domestic airlines including Vietnam Airlines, Vasco, Vietjet Air, Jetstar, and Bamboo Airways.

Regarding the the process of recruiting foreign pilots to work, Thắng said pilots would obtain license from the countries where they were trained. When a foreign pilot wants to work in Việt Nam, he/she must transfer that license into a Việt Nam’s recognised license, which requires he/she to go through the testing process of the CAAV.

Earlier, Minister of Transport Nguyễn Văn Thể asked the CAAV to review the licenses and certificates of foreign pilots who are working at Vietnamese airlines following the news that Pakistani aviation authorities had found more than 250 Pakistani pilots using fake airplane licenses.

To ensure absolute aviation safety, Thể also asked the CAAV to review and immediately ban the execution of flight missions of all Pakistani national pilots and foreign pilots using licenses and certificates suspected of counterfeiting issued by Pakistan.

The results of the review must be reported to the Ministry of Transport before July 31, 2020.

On Friday, Pakistani Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan announced that the country's civil aviation authority had decided to ground 262 pilots suspected of cheating in tests for flight capacity, after a global concern investigation.

According to Khan, Pakistani authorities have investigated the collusion between pilots and civil aviation officials in the period from the end of 2018 to the present. He said that all pilots banned from flying had one or more certificates done by others, even there were cases of all eight certificates.

The investigation decision came after a preliminary report on a plane crash in Karachi last month which said that the pilots had failed to comply with standard flight rules and ignored the warnings. — VNS