Gotta tell ya Jonnyringo… I’ve heard some pretty interesting tales, not only from your Island of Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, some South and Latin American Countries about the issuances of airman certificates under suspicious means. Further Indonesia is no stranger to bribes either. The reason you don’t hear about Indonesia so much as they’re black listed from the west with the exception of Amsterdam.
Anyway Johnny… let’s take an individual with an newly issued FAA ATP certificate. Let’s assume that the individual logged a bunch of P-51 time in order to reach that magical 1,500 hour mark so they can obtain their ATP certificate. Let’s further assume that same individual was able to secure a job with a major carrier under those false pretenses. Whilst on the surface they have a valid ATP certificate, but it is one that was earned under legitimate means? If the FAA were to find out that the time in that individual’s logbook was false… do you think the FAA would initiate certificate action against that person? Thus would you agree that that person with a valid FAA certificate issued under false pretenses should be labeled a “Faker”? Well it’s a problem that goes on all over the world with no system for checks and balances in place to ensure the legitimacy of flight times in one’s logbook.
In recent days there’s been an lad from Australia, found to have questionable credentials, and has fled India to avoid criminal prosecution. Is he any better than an Indian, Chinese, American or any other despot risking the lives of their passengers whilst flying under fraudulent pretenses?
Oh and there was a group of Chinese pilots who falsified their times to maintain acquire and maintain their certificates too.
Would you agree that it a bit naïve, biased, prejudicial and borderline racism for one to think that India is solely the centre of fake airmen certificates?
At the end of the day, IMHO, I think that fraudulent logbook entries are a more serious problem than bribing one’s local DGCA.
Last edited by captjns; 17th Sep 2011 at 12:05.