Some alleged irregularities in pilot recruitment caused a stir among the serving pilots in state-carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines and raised concerns over flight safety.
Biman recruited 14 pilots, including first officers and captains for its Boeing777 fleet in February amid allegations of violating its own recruitment policy and nepotism.
The Prime Minister’s Office in a letter on April 4 asked the ministry of civil aviation and tourism to investigate the irregularities in pilot recruitment.
It prompted the ministry to ask Biman’s managing director Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal to investigate the contractual recruitment of a few ‘controversial’ and ‘disqualified’ people among pilots recruited for Boeing777.
Biman’s several serving and former officials alleged that the airline’s chief of training Captain Sazid Ahmed, a member of the recruitment committee, influenced others to recruit his wife Sadia Ahmed and some of his own people by relaxing some conditions.
He also arranged flying tests for the recruited pilots at Biman’s cost against the normal practice.
Usually, pilots bear such training costs until their first flight, officials said.
They alleged that Sazid influenced the process with the help of his friend and Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh member (security) Group Captain Abu Saleh Mahmud Mannafi, son of ruling Awami League Dhaka South City unit president Abu Ahmed Mannafi.
On May 4, CAAB member for flight standard and regulations Group Captain M Zia Ul Kabir in his fact-finding stated that ‘during documentation check, it has been detected that some of the pilots started flying without the renewal certificate of an instrument rating.’
‘The above findings are contrary to CAA regulation,’ he said, adding, ‘the authority feels it was a clear indication of the supervisory failure.’
The CAAB issued a warning letter to Biman’s director of flight operation over the matter.
Zia Ul Kabir, who returned to Bangladesh Air Force later in the month, declined to comment when approached by New Age.
Earlier on February 13, CAAB chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman in a letter to Biman managing director and chief executive officer Mostafa Kamal said that the regulatory authority had learnt that Biman enrolled some first officers of different airlines directly as captain of Boeing777.
Quoting sources, the letter said that the first officers in question were unable to upgrade their position as captain while serving other airlines as they failed qualification tests.
The chairman in his letter stated that CAAB found the matter a ‘safety concern’.
Biman pilots rated for Boeing 777 and 787 types told New Age that with their poor selection, Biman management was gradually putting its Boeing aircraft at risk.
In the past, the pilots said, they had to deposit $8,000 for training purposes but Biman did not ask for the money from the new recruits.
In April, Biman management arranged the payment of Thai Bath 44, 77,100 ($1,27,000 approximately) for simulator training costs at the Thai Flight Training Centre in Bangkok.
Among the latest recruits, the civil aviation and tourism ministry particularly raised questions about Captain Sazid’s wife Sadia Ahmed, who served US-Bangla Airlines before joining Biman.
A senior executive, who served both Regent Airways and US-Bangla said, Sadia’s training record showed she was very weak during training.
The US-Bangla Airlines spokesman Kamrul Islam said that they did not share the personal information of a pilot unless any airlines sought it for their recruitment.
Another pilot Nasim Ahmed was hired as captain for Boeing777 after he had left Qatar Airways.
Nasim claimed that he worked for Biman for 16 years in the past.
‘Biman officials emailed me to join back,’ said Nasim, who served Qatar Airways as a pilot for 12 years.
Qatar Airways in a recent advertisement for its Boeing fleet said that candidates required a minimum of 6000 hours total time on a commercial jet weighing over 50 tonnes and a minimum of 1000 hours of a flight time as Pilot in Command on Boeing777 or Boeing787 or a combination of hours on types for mixed fleet flying pilots.
In Biman’s case, the PiC position for its new recruits was 500 hours instead of 1000 hours.
New Age sent a set of written questions to Biman managing director Mostafa Kamal on June 5 over the matter.
Mostafa Kamal in his reply on June 14 claimed that ‘the recruitment process is yet to be finalised.’
‘We will be considering the result from different agencies before confirming the job…it takes six months to confirm their job,’ he said.
Asked about easing the contracts for new recruits compared to the past, he said that the company maintained confidentiality in hiring pilots.
‘It depends from pilot to pilot,’ he said.
According to an internal document on August 5, 2021, Biman’s flight operations department stated that there was no shortage of captains for Boeing777.
Rather there were two additional pilots against the requirement of 25 pilots, the document showed.
But there is a shortage of 14 positions of first officers for Boeing777 against its requirement of 24 pilots for four Boeing777 aircraft on the fleet.
It also stated that the airlines needed 23 captains against its standard requirement of 52 captains for flying six brand-new Boeing 787-900 and 18 posts remained vacant for the first officers.
Asked about the recruitment of pilots for Boeing777 instead of Boeing787 rated pilots, the Biman managing director said that they made the recruitments based on opinions from the representatives of the Bangladesh Air Force and CAAB.
Senior pilots of the airlines alleged that the problem started when the Biman managing director wanted to recruit pilots directly instead of upgrading its existing pool a few months after he assumed the charge in February 2021.
On November 22, 2021, Biman published an advertisement for hiring six captains and 14 first officers for Boeing777 without consulting Bangladesh Airline Pilots’ Association.
In a letter to Biman’s managing director on January 10, 2022, the BAPA argued that a pilot should join the airlines as a cadet pilot and then be elevated to other positions through continuous monitoring and evaluation.
One cannot be put at the top by suddenly breaking the career ladder. It takes at least 17 to 20 years for a pilot to become a Boeing777 captain, the BAPA said in its letter.
The letter signed by BAPA vice-president Captain Rezwan Islam reads, ‘When our own pilots are eligible to become captain, hiring [new] pilot in the captain capacity is upsetting and will have a negative impact.’
Three days after the BAPA’s letter to Biman, the CAAB also asked Biman to explain the recruitment process.
On February 22, the Biman management in a letter to the CAAB chairman argued that since no local operator was operating Being777, the chance of getting a Bangladeshi Boeing777 rated captain was ‘very remote’ and stated that they were following all the standards.
The CAAB found the reply unsatisfactory. A CAAM letter on March 10 reminded the Biman authorities that the airlines did not have a direct captain recruitment policy.
As per the Biman operating manual, the CAAB said, a captain is always made with the upgradation.
The CAAB also found it unprecedented in aviation industries to recruit a first officer directly as captain.
Compromising safety by recruiting first officers as direct entry Boeing Captain is unacceptable, the letter warned.
Two pilots told New Age that senior pilots held informal meetings with CAAB member (security) Mannafi and the then CAAB flight safety member Zia a few months ago to resolve the issue but to no avail.
One of the pilots said that they believed that Captain Sazid influenced Mannafi, who joined last year in the CAAB.
Captain Sazid and his pilot wife Sadia did not respond to New Age when they were sent a set of queries on June 12.
Mannafi said that he was not in a position to influence pilot recruitment.
‘In fact, Captain Sazid himself is capable of making a decision...he belongs to Biman and is a very professional man,’ said Mannafi.
As of April 2021, Biman has 158 captains and first officers for its 20 aircraft.