Airline Scams and Scandals

[Aero Mad]

Hi all,

I'm doing a bit of pre-research on airline scams, scandals and interesting stories (or should I say aviation scams and scandals - want to include stuff right back to pre-WWI) for a possible book.

So far have considered things like the Great Plane Robbery (Cooper and the 727), the very recent Victor Bassey case, the 19 year old who pretended to start an airline and some other stories.

Anyone got other ideas?

Of course would have to be very careful with libel.

Many thanks,

Aero Mad

[stepwilk]

There's of course the business covered in the film "Catch Me If You Can," Leonardo diCaprio playing a real-life character, Frank-something, who successfully pretended to be an airline pilot for some time. And there have been a number of threads on the "Rumours and News" forum here about fake pilots; I think there's one current right now.

[stepwilk]

And don't forget "the Barefoot Bandit," here in the U. S., the nonpilot kid who stole a bunch of airplanes and was finally caught recently.

Also the man who tried to disappear--again in the U. S.--a couple of years ago by, as I remember, jumping out of his single-engine Piper Malibu (?) and letting it crash--I'm hazy on the details, but a search should turn it up.

[treadigraph]

What about the 707 that took out the approach lights at Bristol about thirty years ago. Very dodgy operation as I recall and there was a thread on here I think.

This one (http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/387572-boeing-707-n711ut-9q-cry.html)...

[Atcham Tower]

Google Captain Kozubski.

[skydiver69]

You could try looking for info on Cowboy's Caravan. Cowboy apparently was involved in drug smuggling by night and flew skydivers by day but at some point someone took exception to his nocturnal activities and sabotaged the plane causing it to crash.

Dropzone.com Skydive Forums: Skydiving: Skydiving History & Trivia: Cowboys <b>Caravan</b> (http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3181902;search_string=caravan;#3181902)

[Capetonian]

There was a Scotsman in CPT in the late 80's, I think his name was Neil xxxxxxx, who took a number of people for a ride by getting them to invest money in some hare brained scheme for a start up airline to take on SAA and BA on the London route. He was previously connected with a helicopter company (Court?), and had some involvement with a company that was going to market a revolutionary new ticketing system.

I have to say that I'm not sure if his actions were fraudulent or if he was just a dreamer, but he was definitely a most eccentric, and interesting, character.

[henry crun]

If you are referring to the person I think you are, when last heard of he was serving a life sentence for interfering with young children.

[Dan Winterland]

And a PPRuNer who got a lot of people quite emotive on these forums - aka 'The Guv'ner'.

[Krystal n chips]

There was an "interesting" ad. that appeared in "Flight" (once only ) in the late 90's for a start up operation with 757's out of Prestwick...not sure if this was associated with the aforementioned paedophile but I think the scam was based in the South East of the UK.

Being curious, the shift sent for an application form / details etc. The T's and C's were along the lines of you would be paying them..well almost, I think there was a request for some ££'s up front...not sure about this bit however...but the really interesting bit, and to a certain extent, the "clever" bit came some way into the application form when you would be in "form filling mode"...a well known ploy used in many areas...there was a whole page which required some rather "interesting" information...notably what airports did you have security clearance for, what was your Mil Service number and what was your F1250 no. ( Mil ID card for overseas and civilian readers )....strangely, a distinct aroma already present with the ££'s aspect now became overwhelming at this point.

I am sure there was a court case about the scam a year or so later, but can't recall any details.....others might however?

[Aero Mad]

KnC, the man mentioned above serving life for paedophilia was the 'founder' of Caledonian Wings, which wanted to operate 44 Lockheed Tristars from Shannon. It also had interests in Prestwick. The man had his registered office at Prestwick and it was little more than a premium rate fax machine and a briefcase. You might be thinking of this?

[Fly380]

Not to forget my old mate Chris Barret-Jolly.:E

[Krystal n chips]

AM,

On reflection, I am sure the ad. was a different "enterprise" and involved 2 / 3 individuals from Hounslow / Southall...there were "plans " for a hangar as well I seem to recall. The court case itself got very little attention in the media, but when we read a brief story, we all went......hmmm !

[Aero Mad]

Thanks very much for all the replies so far - if you wish to be acknowledged please PM me. Reading about The Guv'nor was enough to chill me to the bone - what a dreadful man and it took Capt. PPRuNe to bust him. 20 years min. for him and no regrets :-/

[allan907]

A loose definition of aviation scam might cover the shennanigins going on over at JB. There might be some connection to books and dogs - apparently.

[NutLoose]

So far have considered things like the Great Plane Robbery (Cooper and the 727),

Don't forget to add the little fix they brought out, a little plate that the airflow turned to prevent the door from being opened again in flight.

[Aero Mad]

allan907, could you clarify? Are you referring to JetBlue, Helijet or something else? Thanks, AM.

[seafury45]

Check out the National Safety Council of Australia in the late 70s? or 80s

[VC10Conway]

In 2003 a 727, formerly of American Airlines, was stolen from Luanda's international airport in Angola. As far as I know, it's current whereabouts is still unknown.

[stepwilk]

There was an article about that 727--at least I think it's the same one--in Air & Space Smithsonian several months ago.

And if it's the wrong airplane, the article is still worth reading because it involves a Boeing that "disappeared" and remains a mystery. Well worth adding to your list.

[WHBM]

Air Rhodesia, during the UN Rhodesian sanctions, buying a whole fleet of Boeing 720s from a dealer in Basel, Switzerland who had them up for sale from a Scandinavian holiday charter airline who had upgraded to newer aircraft. Front was that they were for a new airline startup in Paraguay. Paid cash for them, flew them off to Las Palmas, flightplanned for an evening departure for all of them to South America, set off with full tanks into the night, but landed in Salisbury, Rhodesia, and brought jet operations to Air Rhodesia. Real Boys' Own story buccaneering stuff.

Then what about Hank Wharton ? Every grey market operation going !

Without a doubt the centre of operations for your stories used to be, and to an extent continues to be, Miami airport, especially the ramps on the north side with the various independent operators and the local freelance crews who knew the interesting way to the Caribbean and Latin America.

[stepwilk]

As you probably know, those ramps at MIA were generally referred to as Corrosion Corner.

[Aero Mad]

Thanks v much for all contributions so far - will post the 'line-up' soon ;) Keep 'em comin!

[Phileas Fogg]

I think it was Norwich Airport, back in the mid to late 80's, brain cells aren't what they were but something like a businessman approached the airport, he claimed to be moving in/setting up an exec jet, or even an airline, operation, he wanted some backhanders from the airport to bring his business there, the airport were falling for it but it transpired to be a scam, a fantasy.

As I say my brain cells aren't what they were, perhaps a NWI local from the mid to late 80's might have more accurate info.

[Aero Mad]

Thanks PF, you are as ever a mine of info! Will ask around.

[Phileas Fogg]

Aero Mad,

I think I recall NWI airport running around, new buildings to be built, exec jet centre blah blah blah, my memories are faint but I seem to recall this guy had NWI airport tripping over themselves.

[Dan Winterland]

You could look at low cost ticketing policy. Or how a return flight from Manchester to Rome advertised at 39 pounds one way and 49 pounds return ended up costing 940 pounds for four people.

Both a scam and a scandal in my book!

[henry crun]

Aero Mad: A search for Luke Butler might interest you, and if it does tail wheel will undoubtably be able to answer any questions you might have about Luke.

[Aero Mad]

Hi HC, thanks very much however Luke Butler's history is so 'colourful' and complicated that I do in fact have suspicions that it would not actually work in print. A thread about him on had such a long list of his failed ventures as a reader one would be unable to keep track of it! Wish he would make a few less blunders :)

[treadigraph]

Blimey, never heard of Luke Butler before - just skimmed the thread; he has been a bit of a bad lad!

[Rengineer]

Not sure if it fits into your scope, but you might also be interested in the last flight by Marga von Etzdorf, in 1933. She was hoping to get back into a long-range flying career after various failed flights, and was given the chance to start for Australia with the help of Klemm and some German business people, but crash landed in Aleppo, Syria, then shot herself. What's funny about it is, she allegedly was covertly carrying a latest-model submachine gun (in addition to what she used on herself), so an investigation concluded it was an exploratory flight for some arms smuggling operation. Very murky, sad ending of an otherwise bright life.

[Mark22]

How about the 'Package Holiday' company flying out of Luton using Britannias.

Their brochure proudly claimed an 'all jet fleet', and that was true, but the image on the front cover, a ground shot, had all the propellers airbrushed out and an a nice black orifice intake stuck on the front of all visible engines.

PeterA

[WHBM]

Their brochure proudly claimed an 'all jet fleet', and that was true, but the image on the front cover, a ground shot, had all the propellers airbrushed out and an a nice black orifice intake stuck on the front of all visible engines.
Not unknown at that time. Look at this Viscount at a well-known major US carrier with "Jet Power" boldly on the tail.

Photos: Vickers 812 Viscount Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Continental-Airlines/Vickers-812-Viscount/0128846/L/)

[Noyade]

interesting storiesI'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you're after, but it certainly is an interesting read...

National Affairs: Broomstick at the Mast - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854795,00.html)

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/1804/threez.jpg (http://img810.imageshack.us/i/threez.jpg/)
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5519/onell.jpg (http://img269.imageshack.us/i/onell.jpg/)
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4634/twoz.jpg (http://img233.imageshack.us/i/twoz.jpg/)

[Evileyes]

stepwilk I believe the incident you referred to some posts ago is this one:

ASN Aircraft accident 11-JAN-2009 Piper PA-46-500TP Malibu Meridian N428DC (http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=58470)

Apparently the pilot involved was wanted for securities fraud amongst other things and wanted to do a DB Cooper.

UPDATE: Pilot on the run from Alabama authorities Local News The Herald Bulletin (http://heraldbulletin.com/local/x518841541/UPDATE-Pilot-on-the-run-from-Alabama-authorities)

The unmanned aircraft flew through the circuit at NAS Whiting Field shortly before impact in the Blackwater River basin just East of Milton, Florida.

[allan907]

AeroMad http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/368044-its-dogslife.html

[Aero Mad]

907, that's less of a scam than Foss not being terribly clever. He did write the book, he was just an idiot in distributing it and his publishers were :mad: useless.

[Capot]

Ah, Airline Scams and Scandals, such a rich field of endeavour in which I have failed repeatedly to succeed, in spite of learning at the feet of so many masters, among whom my favourites are/were....

BAF in the '70s and early '80s, with its unique support of needy CAA staff, allied to its unique AOG policy, unique pilot rostering (20 days no break, then a 7 day break), and unique flight planning rules (plan for a place, then divert from overhead to the real destination 100 miles on = more seats to sell in a fuel hungry Viscount)
B. H*dd*c*n and his special line in very private flights from N Ireland and to Libya
A variety of very sharp gentlemen, in GF and elsewhere in the Middle East, eg Palestine Airlines, who knew how to get the best out of a willingly compliant aircraft manufacturer.It's a lot duller now....

[Aero Mad]

Thanks all for your info, any more would be gratefully appreciated.

[Phileas Fogg]

On the subject of BAF there was an occasion when two of their own aircraft were involved in a ground collision with each other ..... all for the insurance payout of course.

On the subject of scandals .... ABZ had been snowclosed, the airport cleared it, the grass areas of the airfield were white and extremely saturated, and an Air UK F27 taxied out for take-off and lined up with the runway centre-line lighting.

Rolling for take-off it was only once they cleared the ARP (the widened area at the end of the runway) that they found out, the hard way, that ABZ didn't have centre-line lighting, only runway edge lighting ..... and that was from an ABZ based crew!

[ONE GREEN AND HOPING]

......Does anybody remember an incident where the Captain of a DC3 he was ferrying in stages from Europe to deepest, or maybe all the way to South Africa, had advertised it for sale locally at an intermediate stop enroute? It was not his own property, but presumably he had the documentation with him.
Can't recall where I read about this, but I'm guessing it would have been during the late 1960s, or into the 1970s.

[HOWARDinOGDEN]

Hadn't heard of the character mentioned by Dan Winterland and Aero Mad, but a search turned up this. Obviously quite a piece of work.

Caledonian Wings: Broken Promises (http://flytristar.tripod.com/article/art06.html)

[Aero Mad]

HOWARDinOGDEN - that might be the chap we're talking about ;);););):)

[Romulus]

There's a relatively recent one where adverts for heavily (70%+) discounted Business Class airfares were posted all over a large social netowrking website.

Buyers got charged and actually received their tickets so they didn't question their bills, what was discovered quite quickly was that the tickets were purchased using details from other stolen credit card details so the purchasers of the discounted ticket either received their travel (if taken relatively quickly) or they didn't know the ticket had been cancelled and they had been scammed until they turned up at the airport...

[Old Photo.Fanatic]

Excuse thread drift.

I am open to correction but as far as I know "corrosion corner " was just that,
the actual Northwest corner of Miami Airport.
I visited there especially in 1985 and later in 1987 when it was still full of long parked old aircraft.

Most of the north ramps were very active with areas on the south edge of these ramps full of dead/stored aircraft .
I talked my way on to all of the North side ramps many times, and have
hundreds of "Slides" from these visits.
I am glad I visited when I did as I caught the tail end of the Golden days of Propliner heaven.
Plus of course the western middle section with the South American operated Propliners.
Great photo. spot by the then "Customs" area.
I got to know one of the custom guys who took me out a couple of times
Airside.
Those were the days.

OPF

[Aero Mad]

Thanks very much for all the replies, I am now collaborating something that resembles a contents page. :ok:

[pasir]

... The following although of fairly minor importance - did
cause concern at the time.

In the latter days at Croydon one of the smaller airlines still operated
scheduled services - whereby passengers cars would be left in the Airport
car park for a week or two - the keys being retained in the airline office -
However that resulted in various owners discovering upon return to the UK that their car had an extra 100 miles or more added to the mile-ometer. On one accassion the owner of a nearly new car arrived to find it severely damaged - while parked !

At the same time cash was dissapearing from the safe - with only 3 key holders involved - in addition tickets were being sold out of sequence
- whereby ticket numbers were being issued from the bottom of the pile
hence the fraud only discovered days later.

The police were called in - but were unable to pinpoint the offences to any one person - with the result that nearly all of us were sacked !

...

[WHBM]

... in addition tickets were being sold out of sequence
- whereby ticket numbers were being issued from the bottom of the pile
hence the fraud only discovered days later.
That was a classic one on the railway as well, in the days when tickets were all preprinted (and serial numbered) for each individual combination of stations. In fact the fraudster took the ticket out of the middle of the stack, not the bottom, because the auditor would take the serial numbers of the top and bottom of each block of tickets.

[Capetonian]

There was a classic scam on the old British Rail paper tickets which travel agencies had, and which were hand written, up to about the mid 1970's.

The ticket consisted of three copies, outward, return, and a counterfoil against which the agency submitted its sales return, and which was submitted for audit. You were supposed to put double sided carbon paper between each part, so that each was identical.

What the employees used to do was issue a 1st class return ticket, but leaving the audit coupon blank, from, for example, Canterbury to Liverpool, but disembark at Manchester, and because break of journey was allowed, they kept (and destroyed) the ticket. On the way home, they would disembark at Euston, hanging on to the Liverpool - Canterbury coupon because they had not completed the journey, and then destroying it.

These days, they charge you more if you don't complete your journey, there was the case recently of a man who bought a London - Newcastle ticket and decided to leave the train at Durham, and was charged a lot for the privilege of shortening his journey.

Therefore the travel coupons were never checked against the audit coupon. The audit coupon meanwhile was completed by writing through a couple of sheets of paper and a carbon, to show a second class day return from (e.g.) Waterloo to Surbiton for which the agency paid.

The scam got rumbled when greedy and stupid travel clerks started selling them to their mates.

These tickets succeeded the type I'm referring to:
http://www.joyce.whitchurch.btinternet.co.uk/tickets/c11.jpg

Disclaimer : I am not an 'anorak', but I have this friend who .....

[JumpJumpJump]

Good luck with the book.

Sadly I've googled amost every story here and had a cracking evenings read. Look forward to your interpretations!

THe story of the college student who was travelling home from Chile to Germany in the 60's or 70's who sole survived no only the mid air explosion, the 30k feet plummet and the walk out of the Jungle with a few broken bones, whie in no way a scandal, but an absolitely amazing story.

[The SSK]

Airlines flying the trans-Siberian route between Europe and North-East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong ...) are required to pay 'compensation' to Aeroflot for the privilege of flying nonstop. Aeroflot can only serve these markets with a transfer or transit in Moscow.

Currently, it amounts to something like a billion Euros a year - nobody knows how much because it doesn't exactly show up in Aeroflot's accounts.

Russia is the only country in the world that not only limits overflights but also imposes arbitrary payments for using its airspace. This is in direct contravention of international law.

Russia agreed in 2006 to a set of 'Agreed Principles' to phase out this practice. To date they have done precisely nothing about it.

[bcgallacher]

A few years ago a Nigerian 747 operator sent an aircraft to Europe for heavy maintenance giving the Asian crew a briefcase with cash to pay the bill as no maintenance organisation with any sense would give credit to a Nigerian company. Crew and briefcase vanished never to be seen again! It must be about the only time a Nigerian has been scammed.

[bcgallacher]

I knew the gentleman who stole the 727 from Luanda - a very strange man indeed - a fantasist of the highest order.I believe he tried to fly the aircraft alone.It was fitted with large tanks to ferry diesel fuel around Angola and the CIA thought it might have been stolen to be used in a terror attack so a great deal of effort was expended - including diverting spy satellites in an unsuccessful attempt to find it.As far as I know it was simply a repossession that went wrong.

[Geezers of Nazareth]

A story related to me many years ago by a friend who worked at Heathrow.

At the time Olympic operated a late-night flight from Heathrow back to Athens, but it usually suffered various 'flow management' delays. If it was delayed departing from Heathrow it missed its slots at various places over Europe, which meant that it had to hang around at Heathrow and so incurred extra charges.
To get around this, they filed the flight as Heathrow-Thessalonika, which did not incur any flow restrictions. The flight would depart Heathrow whenever it wanted to, and once in Greek airspace it would descend as normal towards Thessalonika. It would then declare a 'technical malfunction' and divert to Athens! All the while, the passengers assumed that they were originally going to Athens anyway, and were unaware of the subterfuge.

However, various people from ATC became aware of this. Armed with a copy of the flight-plan, they went to the Olympic ticket-desk and demanded a ticket for the flight to Thessalonika. The ticket-desk (unaware of the stunt being pulled by the flight) said (quite rightly) that there were no flights to Thessalonika, only to Athens. They then produced the flight plan, revealed just who they were, and asked to speak with the Station Manager. He was told in no uncertain terms that either they filed to Athens (and incurred potential delays); or they filed to Thessalonika, actually landed there, told all the passengers, and re-tagged all the baggage.

The re-filed to Athens, and took the delays. ;)

[WHBM]

He was told in no uncertain terms that either they filed to Athens (and incurred potential delays); or they filed to Thessalonika, actually landed there, told all the passengers, and re-tagged all the baggage.
I think you've got an urban legend there, Geezers.

Refiling when en route is an established practice. For example, when Pan Am started New York to Tokyo nonstop, the longest then done, the standards of the day for contingency fuel were excessive, so they filed for Anchorage, and approaching there recalculated that fuel remaining was adequate for Tokyo, plus the right contingency fuel from that point (which is of course what they had loaded in the first place), and refiled for their intended destination. They could always have gone into Anchorage if the remaining figures were not right. As I'm sure Olympic could have gone into Thessalonika if Athens had gone awry somehow.

Anyway, what were these flow management issues, presumably only between Thessalonika and Athens, at 4 am ?

There are plenty of other examples.

[posso]

Then there is also the 'great oil sniffer hoax', where the French oil company Elf Aquitane were taken for millions back in the 1970s.

The company were approached by an inventor claiming to have a new and highly effective device for sniffing out oil deposits below the earths surface. Said device was installed in an aircraft (not sure what type), highly promising test results were obtained.

However despite much actual drilling on the ground nothing was found..After mucho £$$'s were spent on more trials the hoax was uncovered, the device turned out to be little more than a glorified photo-copier!

More details out there on Wiki for those interested...makes for hilarious reading.

[The SSK]

WHBM the most extreme re-filing I ever heard of was when ATM delays were at their worst some 20 years ago and Austrian Airlines had endless problems with their Malta-Vienna flight, which had to travel all the way up through Italian airspace, an absolute black hole for delays.

On one occasion things were so bad that the only way to get off the island was to file for Amsterdam, setting off southward to Tunisia, through Algeria, Morocco, turn right up through Spain and France and when overhead Paris, refile for Vienna.

[26er]

Not a refiling story - but in the early 70's when BEA and PANAM operated the south corridor from Berlin to Frankfurt the Frankfurt ATC staged a work to rule for a couple of weeks. This created horrific delays of both arrivals and departures with aircraft in the Metro hold for well over an hour. So as the parking was out of view of the ground controller as soon as the aircraft was on the ground they called for start clearance knowing it would not be given for 45 mins or so. Eventually ATC cottoned on and refused to put one in the queue until it was confirmed that the doors were closed. For a short time BEA 1 11s inbound in the Metro hold called ground for start clearance, were asked "are your doors closed" and hand on heart could reply "affirmative" and were told you are number 70 or so in the start sequence. Much to PANAM's irritation they rolled up to their parking slot, tipped the SLF off and took on the next lot, by which time their turn had come and off they went. When they eventually found out ATC showed their usual Frankfurter's lack of humour.

[mat777]

Im sure I'll win very few friends for dragging up a subject that I imagine has been flogged to death many times before on here.... BOAC and their outrageous behaviour over the procurement, development, configurations and running costs of the VC10.... which actually turned out to superior in many ways to their "preferred" 707s
Although most of you will probably know about it a lot better than I do, for those who dont there is a nice little summary of the whole affair in "Empire of the Clouds" by James Hamilton Paterson (a damn good read, by the way).

[Capetonian]

It must be about the only time a Nigerian has been scammed.

Not at all. You know all those letters you get from 'Sani Abacha' and 'Charles Soludo' about their millions. The guys who sit and send those letters from internet cafes are being scammed by a scammer higher up the food chain, someone who sells them the text for them to cut and paste and send out to a list of email addresses that they have bought.