DHAKA: The next time you take a flight in India, keep your fingers crossed and hope that your pilot is flying on a valid licence, not a lapsed one.

Air India has discovered that as many as 102 pilots of its wide body Boeing fleet have been flying without clearing a mandatory test that helps keep their licences valid and without which the same lapse.

The airline informed the downgraded-by-US directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) which, worryingly, failed to detect on its own the flying by so many pilots with lapsed licences.

The AI admission comes on the heels of the regulator last month finding that 131 Jet Airways pilots were also flying without clearing a mandatory biannual exam - meaning on a lapsed licence.

The DGCA had ordered Jet to remove its chief of training due to this serious lapse, reports The Times of India.

BDST: 1218 HRS, OCT 26, 2014