Originally Posted by
Airbubba
Fake FAA licenses are rare in my experience. However every U.S. airline seems to have tales from the training building of folks using the wrong 'gouge' for the systems test and all flunking a la
Animal House. Or, a story of the guy who stole the test from an instructor's desk and then jammed the Xerox machine in the schoolhouse trying to copy it (hey, at least I went to Zappo's to make the copies
).
Here's a pilot test cheating scandal that made headlines three decades ago.
Former Tradewinds A300 pilot finally jailed for FAA fraud
I personally know of one person working on a fake A/P license. Around 5 or 6 of us were working for a well known US freight carrier in Europe (All Brits) we all held A/P licenses this particular individual was sent to Vienna to assess a tail strike and signed it of as within limits as chance would have it there were some feds at Vienna at the time and wanted to see the aircraft in question. Whenthey saw the damage it was found to be well out of limits and unsafe for any flight ferry or otherwise they then checked his license and this is when the fraud came to light turns out he was using the license number of someone long deceased with his name forged onto the A/P.