Delhi: Nearly a month after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) withdrew its approval for Pipistrel SW121 aircraft for the purpose of training commercial pilots, the future of as many as 40 student trainee pilots at Odisha’s Government Aviation Training Institute (GATI) hangs in uncertainty.

Talking to ETV Bharat, Captain Jati Dhillon, CEO of GATI and a former Naval Commander and Aviator on why DGCA has withdrawn it's approval, said, "Competitor aircraft manufacturer 'distributors' sees the Pipistrel Virus SW121 eating into their market because of its extremely superior capability and low price of acquisition and operation and Competitor Flying School sees us as a threat to their business which is quite strange because the Indian Pilot Training Industry accounts for only 20-30 per cent of the current requirement."

He further said, "I cannot but see this as a punishment for being a whistleblower to the arbitrary and corrupt practices of the previous Director of Flight Training through my complaint to the Honorable Minister of Civil Aviation in October 2023", referring to Captain Anil Gill who was suspended last year due to allegations of corrupt practises.

This withdrawal from the DGCA comes nearly 18 months after it gave the green light to the trainer aircraft.

Now, the impacted students have moved to the Delhi High Court against the DGCA's February 26 notification. The notification revised the aircraft’s categorisation, which effectively prohibits its use to train commercial pilots.

Captain Dhillon said, "DGCA has also refused to grant a commercial pilot’s license to the first three students who completed their training on the Pipistrel aircraft, leaving them in uncertainty."

An industry expert talking on anonymity said, "These three applicants put up their papers back in November 2023 and as per the guidelines, they should've been issued the certificate within 30 days. But their applications were rejected in March 2024. So this raises questions that if they wanted to cancel their certificates, they should've done it earlier. Why did they wait so long".

It is pertinent to note here that on February 26, DGCA informed GATI that its committee of experts had concluded that the Pipistrel SW121 aircraft was a Light Sport Aeroplane (LSA).

People aware of the matter said, "DGCA has not quoted any rules under which they have taken this action to re-classify this as LSA from NORMAL category. They have quoted a committee of experts whereas the certificate was issued by the competent department in DGCA after following due process which is the Aircraft Engineering Department (AED) section and the Directorate of Airworthiness (DAW)."

"According to published rules, Light Sport Aircraft are only issued "Special Certificate of Airworthiness" under a Rule 49I of the Indian Aircraft Rules whereas Pipistrel SW121 possesses a "Certificate of Airworthiness" issued under Rule 49E. It is pertinent to mention that this aircraft is used unrestricted for flight training across Europe," people said.

"The irony is that a pilot gets a CPL abroad while flying the Pipistrel SW121 in Europe and then DGCA converts it to Indian CPL, whereas the same aircraft cannot be used in India. This is encouraging students to go abroad for CPL at cheaper rates, effectively putting Indian FTOs at disadvantage", they said.

According to DGCA rules, LSA weighs more than 450 kg but it should not exceed 600 kg and its speed should not disseminate over 45 knots. But, SW121 aircraft has a weight of 600 kg with a maximum speed of 53 knots.

An aviation expert said, "SW121 aircraft would've been a game changer because of its utility. The broad aim was to bring in the electric SW121 in this aviation industry and get the CPLs on this electric version. This would've brought down the cost in the industry and specially in a country like India where there is so much poverty, this step would've reduced the amount that actually takes to become an airline pilot apart from reducing the carbon footprint."

Officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA were unavailable for the comments.