Airline Scams and Scandals
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......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.
Can't recall where I read about this, but I'm guessing it would have been during the late 1960s, or into the 1970s.
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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
Caledonian Wings: Broken Promises
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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...
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...
stepwilk (#22) Miami Airport Corrosion Corner
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
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
Last edited by Old Photo.Fanatic; 24th Jan 2011 at 00:28.
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... 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 !
...
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 !
...
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.
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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:
Disclaimer : I am not an 'anorak', but I have this friend who .....
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:
Disclaimer : I am not an 'anorak', but I have this friend who .....
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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.
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.
A Runyonesque Character
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Trans-Siberian overflight payments.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
Scam(?) at Heathrow
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.
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.
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.
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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 £$$'s were spent on more trials the hoax was uncovered, the device turned out to be little more than a glorified photo-copier!
More details out there on Wiki for those interested...makes for hilarious reading.
The company were approached by an inventor claiming to have a new and highly effective device for sniffing out oil deposits below the earths surface. Said device was installed in an aircraft (not sure what type), highly promising test results were obtained.
However despite much actual drilling on the ground nothing was found..After mucho £$$'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.
A Runyonesque Character
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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.
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.
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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.
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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).
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).
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It must be about the only time a Nigerian has been scammed.
