First Officer flies 13 years without license

[Roddenty]

Photogrpher

According to this article, the Walt was actually a photographer.
Swedish pilot flew 13 years without licence - The Local

His portfolio.
Portfolio

[MathFox]

Mr. N.S. Fletcher, I appreciate your contribution and agree with you that this pilot should be punished for his fraud. OTOH, I think it is good to take one step back and look at the holes in other parts of the system that were abused so that Mr. Fake could land his flying job.

The first (obvious) hole that was abused was insufficient verification of the pilot license. Several airlines accepted a "home made" piece of paper (or maybe just the pilot's word) for a real license. Off course one could make the certificate harder to fake, but tell me how often you see an Icelandic or Maltese pilot license... is that enough to spot a falsification? In these days of internet connectivity it should be pretty easy for a CAA to set up a web site where one can validate a license: Enter a license number[*] and you get a web page with the details of the license. (No need to provide current address of the pilot, name and date of birth should be enough.)
[*] One can ask some other data, like "issue date" to prevent access by people just trying license numbers.

[Enzo 391]

Pointer is correct somebody must take the responsibility for employing this "pilot" and on top of that making him Base Captain,but as usual the
DFO will not admit any mistake at all and keep his job.

[Pointer]

Flapassym and Roddenty ever heard of PM?

Enzo, its up to the Court to decide on Capt. Fake and up to the CEO's to decide on Capt. Fake's Accomplish...

lets hope All are enlightened enough to deal with this case.

[68+iou1]

Apparently, he was a fake TRI as well.
What happens to the licences/type ratings that have his signature on the paperwork?

[Pointer]

Longer Jail

The latest: Capt.Fåke will remain in custody atleast 2 more weeks, the court has stated.

[itwasme]

More on the Airtours chap:

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Cheating pilot’s new career is flying high

[J.O.]

He should have stayed with photography. His work is pretty good, and no licensing issues.

Then again, he may have become addicted to the adrenaline rush that came with his continuing deception.

[eastern wiseguy]

ITWASME

More on the Airtours chap:

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Cheating pilot’s new career is flying high

Which leads to....

Now, seven years later, he has taken a job with Scottish airline flyglobespan after properly passing his pilot exams.

didn't they stop trading?.....

[Pointer]

Eastern "not so" Wiseguy; check the date of the article.. "Monday July 7,2008"

just kidding, could have overlooked that as well... Not

[Roddenty]

J.O.
He should have stayed with photography. His work is pretty good, and no licensing issues.

But are they his photos? Copyright issues?

That's the trouble with Walts...

[silverstrata]

Scotland

Interesting thread.

But if this guy worked in England, then he must have been through that 'tight' security check they call 'Scotland' (why?), so why did 'Scotland' not write to Sweden and find out?

[Roddenty]

Silverstrata:

But if this guy worked in England, then he must have been through that 'tight' security check they call 'Scotland'.

Good point - you mean Disclosure Scotland, the UK's security agency.

Disclosure Scotland

Yes, what is the point of Disclosure Scotland, and all the time and money it takes from us, if it cannot discover a fake licence?

In fact, has Disclosure Scotland ever prevented any 'bad apples' from getting airside? - or is the entire department a complete waste of space?

[Dengue_Dude]

I cannot help but 'feel' that these people are, for some unfathomable reason, protected.

A two year sentence (potentially) - wow, that should deter them. Can you imagine the company's insurance bill if there is an accident and it turns out a Walt is in control - it beggars belief.

I also surmise based upon unproven hearsay, but knowing the characters who responded in the most 'twitchy' fashion during the Airtours investigations, I can believe, this is merely the tip of the iceberg.

One 'slimboy fat' springs to mind all these years later. He was even phoning around looking for moral support for Heavensake.

I mean, who checks when an employee says they have a degree for instance?

[Sepp]

Disclosure Scotland is a load of tripe. I am in the middle of a (long-running) battle with them. They claim I have provided "false details" about where I've lived. Strangely, the various credit checking agencies seem to know where I was, and when - as does the Child Support Agency. As their record of dates/places agree with mine, I am apparently not (totally) mad. Sadly, though, DS cannot discuss which bits of information are in dispute for "security reasons", but they are keen to stress that their information "cannot" be wrong.

Anyhoo, they do at least agree that I must have been living at my current address since the start of this charade - as they've successfully been in contact with me since then - so, only four months to go and I'll pass the test having then lived here for five years.... so all will be safe and well again.

Unless, of course, I'm not me at all but someone claiming to be me, at this address.

Typical useless UK claptrap.

[manxcat]

Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

More on the Airtours chap:

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Cheating pilot’s new career is flying high

I thought someone with a criminal conviction couldn't obtain an airside pass?

A suspended prison sentence of more than six months isn't classed as 'spent' for 10 years from conviction. In this case 2011. Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

Surely, Disclosure Scotland's Basic Disclosure would have highlighted this?

Maybe I'm wrong...

[captplaystation]

No , you are right, but only some offences are "disqualifying", like , for instance leaving the filling station and forgetting to pay at 4 in the morning because you were totally knackered after a night Tenerife.

Strangely enough, fraud involving "fixing" your log book doesn't feature on the list, whilst any number of relatively benign offences do.

The list doesn't really give the impression of having in any way been influenced by anyone who knows cack-all about aviation, seems to have been drawn up at the "chief constables ball"

[Slickster]

Also, don't forget that DS can only uncover convictions in the UK, and yet any EU national has the right to live and work in the UK, and could have any number of convictions in other countries. Strangely enough they won't have any in the UK, because they've never lived here, so will be deemed "clean" by DS. What a joke.

[Hansard]

I've lived in the UK all my life. My airside pass for a UK airport took 12 weeks to come through. Four pilots from overseas, who had never lived a day in the UK, joined the company at the same time and got their passes in 3 weeks.

[Private jet]

I think that this kind of thing goes on more than we realise. Personally i knew someone that had a genuine license but it was issued on the basis of a lot of fake entries in his logbook. In fact he fabricated an entire flying career in the RAF! He got a job with an airline in the UK and it was 3 years before he was rumbled. This was only by chance as he was on a conversion course and a fellow trainee on said course had actually been on so and so squadron at the same time as this character was supposedly there. Of course the facts didnt fit. All that said however he passed every test, course, check etc he did and was to all intents and purposes a competent pilot. Safety was not an issue, just cheating the honest people. This is an extreme example but i have also known loads of people "round up" logbook entries, or make an "error" adding the times up!