B737 FO flew 13 years without license - arrested today . . .

[robbreid]

http://www.nu.nl/buitenland/2197443/pil ... revet.html

Google translator Dutch to English

Pilot flies 13 years without license
Published: March 3, 2010 14:12
Last modified: March 3, 2010 16:09
DUBLIN - On Tuesday Schiphol is a pilot who has maintained for years with a false pilot flew.

The lawyer Corendon Airlines confirmed media reports that the pilot of the Turkish-based airline flew.

At the time of his arrest on board a Boeing 737 was the 41-year-old Swede, according to the National Police (Police Agency) at the point with 101 passengers to fly to Ankara.

Ten thousand flight hours

Corendon Airlines had previously been informed about the arrest and provided a replacement so the flight could leave without neppiloot.

The Swede living in Milan said that he had 13 years with false papers behind the bat that he sat in that time had made at least ten thousand flight hours for airlines in Belgium, Great Britain and Italy.

Relieved

He expressed relief that his deception came to light and did spot off his stripes. The man had a license but it expired and was not valid for aircraft. To still be able to fly, he had a forged certificate.

The lawyer says that the pilot for the last two years Corendon Airlines flew the management''and that he skilfully led up the garden with his forged papers.''Also with other companies, he passed with flying colors for testing. The lawyer calls it''a blessing in disguise''that he alone has never flown. Ht is clear he is that man no more minutes Corendon Airlines flies.

photo Corendon Airlines B737-400

[robbreid]

Found an English version;

AMSTERDAM (BNO NEWS) — A Swedish pilot was arrested at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Tuesday on charges of flying commercial airliners with no valid pilot license for more than 13 years, authorities said on Wednesday.

The Swedish pilot was taken into custody on Tuesday around 10.45 p.m. local time during a joint operation by the Dutch Inspection of Traffic and Water and the KLPD Netherlands Police Agency. The 41-year-old pilot, who lives in the Italian city of Milan, is being accused of forgery and flying without a valid pilot license. He is scheduled to appear before a judge on Friday.

The Dutch Inspection of Traffic and Water was informed by Swedish authorities that the pilot was currently in the Netherlands and was using a false Airline Transport Pilot License, which is required for pilots of passenger planes. He was arrested in the cockpit of a Boeing 737, which he was scheduled to fly to the Turkish city of Ankara.

The operation was planned by the relevant Dutch authorities, who wanted to arrest him as he was preparing for the flight. The airliner, which was not immediately named, was briefed in advance - and was able to arrange a new pilot in advance.

The pilot, according to Dutch authorities, was once in possession of a valid Commercial Pilot License, but had since expired. However, this license was only valid for small commercial airplanes.

After his arrest on Tuesday, the pilot said he was relieved to have been caught. He said he had flown for more than 13 years on multiple airliners in Belgium, the UK and Italy. He has flown at least 10,000 hours during these years.

More at : Dutch authorities arrest Boeing 737 pilot who had no valid pilot license.

[Hedley]

Ok, so he was a little low on paper, but was he a good stick?

(running and ducking)

[Doc]

So, one has to ask. Is he going to be a better pilot if he gets a license? Who are the victims here? Is there an injured party? He's very obviously talented enough to pass all the SIM rides etc. Make him get a licence and put him back in the 73! Thank him for drawing attention to the loop hole in the system that allowed him to be there in the first place. Really, what are they going to do? Suspend his licence?

[Grease Nipple]

So, one has to ask. Is he going to be a better pilot if he gets a license? Who are the victims here? Is there an injured party? He's very obviously talented enough to pass all the SIM rides etc. Make him get a licence and put him back in the 73! Thank him for drawing attention to the loop hole in the system that allowed him to be there in the first place. Really, what are they going to do? Suspend his licence?

Since when is forging a license a loophole?? Lock the bastard up.

[Cat Driver]

Doc and Hedley, sometimes I get so depressed when you guys fail to understand the importance of paper work.

Usually I like to read your stuff but when you both blatantly mock the industry you work in by trying to undermine the authorities and their means of ensuring safety within the system you have stepped across the line and if you keep it up you will lose not only my respect but my support.

Please read and remember the following.

Without the proper paper work, especially the new formats that are designed with your safety in mind you are a threat to aviation and to suggest your skills have not degraded or been extinguished is absurd.....

......the fact that you can not produce the proper paper work is proof positive you are not qualified.

Please refrain from these childish unprofessional comments in the future especially comments like passing Sim and check rides over rides holding the proper paper work.

God I get depressed sometimes.

[Lost Lake]

Yeah, so today he is a qualified pilot. How about 10,000 hr ago. What would have happened back then if an emergency occured.
I wonder how you would feel if a guy claiming to be a surgeon was going to do a life threatening surgery on you or your kids, and you found out he was only certified as a nurse!

The guy cheated the system! Plane (pun) and simple. Fry his ass and lets move on. There's enough licensed f/o's who can do his job.

[Doc]

Lock the bastard up.

For what? Not like he counterfeited money, or something. Seriously, who are the victims here? Other than your feelings, were you personally injured by his actions? Who was injured here? Physically or financially? I think it's a Hoot! Somebody should make a movie about it. I hear Leonardo DiCaprio has had some experience playing parts like this?

[Hedley]

Lock the bastard up ... Fry his ass

Did he crash?

[Cat Driver]

Yeah, so today he is a qualified pilot. How about 10,000 hr ago. What would have happened back then if an emergency occured.

Interesting question.

To come to a reasonable answer to that question one would first have to determine if said pilot had been given any check rides in a sim and or the airplane as part of said pilots hiring process.

Then based on his performance during said checks one could make a more reasonable determination of what would have happened in an emergency situation.

[GoinNowhereFast]

Catch Me If You Can is a good movie. Maybe make a sequal from this guy's life?

[Cat Driver]

For those of you who are system driven paper work worshipers here is a simple question I would like to get your thoughts on.

In 1965 I held a valid class 2 instructors rating, I allowed the rating to lapse as I no longer needed it for type of flying I continued to do.

However during the decades that passed since allowing the rating to lapse I continued to teach in the positions of check pilot with various companies and later earned my living doing advanced flight training all over the planet until I finally retired to enjoy life without the need to work.

Does the lack of paper work in the form of a valid renewal of my flight instructors rating make me unsafe and incompetent to teach flying?

[Doc]

I wonder how you would feel if a guy claiming to be a surgeon was going to do a life threatening surgery on you or your kids, and you found out he was only certified as a nurse!

The guy cheated the system!

Big difference between a Doctor and a Nurse.

The difference between a CPL and an ATPL are four government mandated exams, none of which have anything to do with being a more capable pilot. Oh, and a hundred hours of PIC night time. That's IT! The type training has nothing to do with what kind of "paper" they're printed on.

[trey kule]

You guys are so cruel. This is no big deal. Why I even heard that a little while back, if your daddy worked for the company, there was a major Canadian airline that would let you in without a license...

So quit being a bunch of whinie, poor me, I had to actually go out and get the experience. Just get a pen, a scanner , and a photocopier and create your own career in aviation.

[. ._]

I admire this guy's balls!

I wish I could get away with something like that!

Can you imagine his next flying job interview?

"So you just got your Commercial Multi-IFR?"

"Yes."

"But your logbook says you have 10,000 multi-jet hours."

"Yah."

"You must be some rich, slow learner, kid!"

-istp

[YOWza]

Nice on the job training!

[chu me]

I believe that the injured party, in this case, would someone who was qualified to fly a B737 that applied for that position and every other position prior to this one, but it went to this moron instead. That would also have a financial repercussion for those people. I guess in your opinion it is ok to parker pen fly too! ( forging licence, forging hours what is the difference? )

There I'm done boys............have at'er

[cyeg66]

I admire this guy's balls!

Ewwww..... just kiddin'.

Consider it a 10 000 hr check ride. Like someone else mentioned, does this mean he passed? No blown tires, bent gears, belly scratches, prangs, explosions, deaths... Looks like he did pretty well to me

Now Cat, before you blow a gasket, you'll be happy to know paperwork is well represented on the other side of the freq, too. We have a profound sense of appreciation for it. In fact, ATC aren't worried about getting OI's for fear of planes almost hitting each other, it's for the god-awful pile of paper you have to fill out afterward. Again, kidding.

[Grease Nipple]

Lock the bastard up.

For what? Not like he counterfeited money, or something. Seriously, who are the victims here? Other than your feelings, were you personally injured by his actions? Who was injured here? Physically or financially? I think it's a Hoot! Somebody should make a movie about it. I hear Leonardo DiCaprio has had some experience playing parts like this?

The victim is the guy with all the proper qualifications that didn't get the job becouse this guy forged his credentials. Also the airlines that thought they were getting a properly licensed pilot. What if something had happened and it was found out this guy didn't really have a license, would the airlines insurance still be valid? You break the rules and cheat people you pay the price. He is a criminal and deserves to be treated like one.

[yycflyguy]

I believe that the injured party, in this case, would someone who was qualified to fly a B737 that applied for that position and every other position prior to this one, but it went to this moron instead. That would also have a financial repercussion for those people. I guess in your opinion it is ok to parker pen fly too! ( forging licence, forging hours what is the difference? )

+1

[fleet16b]

Pretty amazing that he got away with it for so long.
However, although illegal , he obviously had a good record as far as flying goes.
Try going up into Northern Canada sometime and seeing how many fly with either improper paperwork , lapsed license etc.
I personally knew a guy that never ever had a license and flew for over 40 yrs.
This guy was the best stick and rudder guy I ever met and could fly rings around most of us on this Forum and use to prove that publically all the time.
His formation and trick flying coordination was super human.
I'll bet some of you know him and never knew his situation.
You may need paperwork to be legal but it has nothing to do with ability whatsoever.

[flyinthebug]

Both sides have a point on this one.. He didnt hurt anyone and he once held a CPL, so he somehow pulled it off. Bravo and good for you. Like Doc said, what are they really going to do??

On the other hand, he blatently lied and broke alot of regs and rules everytime he stepped on the flight deck. Hes a criminal and deserves to be treated like one.

My personal opinion is there are rules in place for a reason. Rules/Regs whatever, can be bent under certain circumstances, but to outright ignore them this way is unacceptable. Think for a minute, what this world would be like with no structure and no real government? Not likely a place many of us would want to exist. The guy broke so many regs, that he does deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Were not talking about a 17 yr old kid who forged his drivers licence so he could go out on a hot date that night. This guy had 100+ pax that looked to him as the professional pilot that would safely get them from a to b. To me, thats a crime and he pushed wayyyy too far.


He may have great hands and feet and as was pointed out, he had to pass a few sim rides along the way over 13 years, so he ultimately became self taught and again, bravo for being that capable. Bottom line is this was a crime and he risked many people lives during his "on the job" self trainings sessions and thank god there was not a real emergency during ANY of his flights.


Fly safe all

[MrWings]

Catch Me If You Can is a good movie. Maybe make a sequal from this guy's life?

The difference is that Frank William Abagnale, Jr. never actually flew an aircraft.

I've always thought the toughest bit of flying you ever do is when you are all alone in the C-150 on your first cross country, navigating via paper map, trying to find that airport that you never been to before and there is a 13 knot crosswind.

A 737 is a piece of cake after that.

[Shiny Side Up]

Not sure what to think about this topic given the ammount of responses to it. Am I a fan of more paperwork? No. Does having the legal paperwork automatically make someone a safer pilot? No. We can all agree that the paperwork associated with this business has gotten out of hand and it doesn't always serve its intended purpose - that of making the business reasonably safe for the majority of us. Suffice to say there's a strong arguement to support this fellow in his anti-authority crusade.

On the other hand we should wonder if we want all persons in positions of responsibility act this way. Here's something to think about: in another transportation business the issue of forged licences is serious business. The above article unfortunately is all too common. The issue of whether this fellow hurt someone with his faulty paperwork is irrelevant. The idea that he sought to misrepresent himself as a pilot (even though he was technically qualified) violates that trust that all the passengers place in us. The passengers already don't want to pay us for the service, the idea that some of us might be zooming around like this fellow, certainly doen't help our case.

I personally knew a guy that never ever had a license and flew for over 40 yrs.
This guy was the best stick and rudder guy I ever met and could fly rings around most of us on this Forum and use to prove that publically all the time.

While that may seem awesome, remember that all it would have took was for one incident to have happened and the general public would have been given one more round of ammo to lobby to put one more restriction on the rest of us flyers. Few general aviation pilots seem to get this that their actions paint all of us with a bad color in the view of the non-pilot public. Who do they think are the people trying to put in noise restrictions and close down airports and decide how much aviation gets taxed?

On a directly personal side of things, I know that whenever some fool pulls off something like this it sets off one of those friggin meeting in the group of people who generate the paperwork to generate more. You'd be suprised (or not) on how predictable they are. This incident I'd be willing to wager is probably the subject that a committee is discussing on more paperwork that can be required to help prevent such a re-occurance. Suffice to say, I'm very aware on how something stupid like what this fellow has pulled off can very directly become my problem.

[Mostly Harmless]

Isn’t this the same group of people who wanted to publicly lynch another guy from Canada for doing the exact same thing… except he got caught earlier in his career? The same group who demanded names be named, jail sentences carried out and even went to other forums to spread the word. But this guy’s a hero because he got away with it for 13 years and isn’t in Canada. Can anyone say double standard… or perhaps no standards at all?