American Eagle pilot suspended after lying about background
 

From the NY Post today:



EXCLUSIVE

A pilot for a commuter airline that flies out of all three New York airports was grounded after telling multiple lies about his background to make himself look a poster boy for his industry in a magazine profile, The Post has learned.
Timothy Martins, who flies for American Eagle, told the magazine, published by his union, that he’s an active member of the New Jersey Air National Guard, an FDNY firefighter and a graduate of an aviation school on Long Island.
None of it was true, officials of the agencies said.
The safety of regional commuter carriers and their pilot training came under heavy scrutiny after a Colgan Air jet crashed near Buffalo last February, killing 50 people.



Many of the smaller carriers pay their pilots peanuts, give them insufficient rest time between flights and make them commute thousands of miles.
The story about Martins was written, in part, to counter the bad publicity resulting from the crash and other highly embarrassing incidents — including an airliner overshooting Minneapolis while its pilots chatted about their schedules.
Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for American Eagle, which is owned by American Airlines, refused to comment on the allegations.
But she insisted that Martins holds all the required FAA certifications for his job as a first officer. There’s no indication he lied to his employer about his background.
Martins, who has been grounded, did not respond to a call and an email requesting for comment.
The controversy began after the lengthy article appeared in the April edition of the Air Line Pilots Association magazine.
Questions about his claim to be an F-16 pilot in the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard soon began circulating on the Internet.
Major Yvonne Mays, spokeswoman for the Jersey Guard, said it didn’t "have any record of a pilot" named Martins.
The 24-year old, who is from Long Island, also claimed to be a firefighter and paramedic in New York. But an FDNY spokesman said, "He’s not a firefighter, he has not worked for our department."
Dowling College confirmed that Martin attended the school, but said he did not graduate and his years of attendance do not correspond to the dates he said he was there.
Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said if Martins lied, it should be of concern to American Eagle.
"Anyone who is charged with a responsibility for transporting the lives of other people safely who is evidently intentionally fabricating or embellishing credentials or falsifying stories, that’s obviously a terrible problem that should be of concern to the airline," he said.
An ALPA spokeswoman declined comment.
Christine Negroni’s Web site is thecrashdetectives.com


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/american_eagle_pilot_suspended_after_soKJR4zQDHGxRYoin99RbI# ixzz0jugBb8x7

A commuter pilot from Long Island full of B.S.? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you...:)

Anyway, someone claiming to be him makes a mild apology in post #67 of this thread:

EPIC Thread - Fighter Pilot Poser exposed - Baseops Forums - Page 4

A lot of healthy discussion in PPRune's sister forum here:

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/mi...-magazine.html

And, of course, a Facebook fan page:

Welcome to Facebook | Facebook

Reminds me of The Guvnor....

Some unintentional irony, the last line of the puff piece in ALPA magazine:

"He is what ALPA stands for. Tim is ALPA."

Not any more. What a tool.

It's easy to jump to conclusions before all the facts are known.

He might have only been trying to pick up the ALPA magazine interviewer.

ask any flight attendant
 

if a pilot's lips are moving...he's lying

The pilot's choice, not the airline.........

Maybe he should have just told them he was a piano player in a whorehouse. He might have gotten more respect...

The man himself.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b270/cumpas/alpa.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b270/cumpas/alpa2.jpg

Wow. Dude didn't follow Man Rule #3: "If you're going to lie, lie to girls" ;)

Please pass the bucket...........:E

This doesn't reflect very well on ALPA journalists' research skills, either.

While lying about this sort of thing doesn't necessarily mean that a pilot has lied about safety-critical things, people who lie tend to do it in all sorts of contexts, so if someone lies about this, he has probably lied about a lot of other things, irrespective of their importance to safety.

So while there's obviously two sides to a story, I have mixed feelings about this whole ordeal. True or not; I fail to see how being a firefighter/paramedic/church-volunteer/fighterpilot makes you a better commercial air transport pilot. To me, that sort of professionalism starts with realising and being open about your own shortcomings rather than positive traits. The question also arises, how on earth does anyone have time to do all of the above things in the 24 hours provided each day? :eek:

The Delta guy who recommended him must be feeling a bit gun shy right now. It also speaks volumes for the ALPA Code of Ethics Role Model program, who else in aviation has never practiced the "trust, but verify" code?

ALPA magazine on a roll . . .
 

It's just incredible how ALPA editors and writer Jan W. Steenblick suck up such impractical reality dished out by this wonder boy.

-flies American Eagle jet as copilot
-flies F16s
-works as a fire fighter
-works as a paramedic
-works as a Critical Incidence Response Team volunteer
-works as a mentor for new hires at American Eagle
-works in the food pantry of a church as a volunteer
-helps build homes for the Habitat Humanity Program

. . . .Hellooooooooo :ooh:

Why is he holding a flashlight? it's DAYLIGHT! :ugh:

Perhaps I am missing something here...On the other hand, I am in no way as cool as Tim Martins of course.:hmm:

"Many of the smaller carriers pay their pilots peanuts, give them insufficient rest time between flights and make them commute thousands of miles..."


What's that saying about paying peanuts?? What do you get?

A flashlight can be useful even during daylight conditions to check areas such as wheel wells :ok:

spectacularly embarassing

Perhaps he wants to add Scene of Crime Investigator to his job list. :E

He's an idiot, but I myself carry a flashlight on walkarounds in the daytime. I use it to check the wheelwells and the engines, and it helps me spot the door pins when the little windows get grimy.

Good lord. Is Jan Steenblik still alive? What a warhorse.

You are so wrong, so out of line with this comment that I can't post my thoughts. You are as bad, no worse, than the gentleman in question. STFU.

if this guy said he was flying the F16. Probably he logged F16 hours in his logbook.

logging fake time is a Federal crime.

His FAA license should be revoked.

That's not a torch, it's a laser! He must've gotten it in his F-16 training.

it`s a lightsaber
 

It`s a lightsaber he`s holding. He just never came around telling the journo that he`s a volunteer Jedi fighter.

The amusing thing about this whole story and thread is that the majority of you think that this issue is rare.

It's not.

Chaps all over the world are padding logbooks, adding ratings, experience and God knows what else to their resumés and are walking into jobs that, if I am being honest, they are more than capable of doing, but are indeed breaking to rules to get into.

That's the way it is out there.
Some will be exposed as time goes by; some will go out to pasture having gotten away with it for their entire careers.

Fact.

Farrell

Very true Farrel. Away on detatchment in the US my Flt Eng overheard the lead Nav telling a couple of girls that he was a pilot. Shock and horror (ie mirth) all round. We didn't let on that he was rumbled but the story was leaked at an appropriate moment and it appeared in the speeches when he left the Squadron. Ho Ho.

The industry contains pilots who falsify their past for all sorts of reasons. Some to gain emploment, some to gain respect others with things to hide. The point is though that the aviation community is small. they usualy get caught out at some stage.

TC

Bloom,

The statement is not out of line at all, why take such offense?

Pilots choose to commute or not. It may be impractical to move to base for a number of reasons, but when you sign on you know where the bases are, where you live, and what your - not the airline's - options are as to where you will live.

I commuted for a number of years, but now live at base and will never commute again. It was always my choice.

Ahhh, just got back from leaping a building in a single bound...

I'm faster than a speeding bullet...

I just saved 2 kittens from a drain pipe...

I landed an A-320 in the Hudson, then personally fought the fire, drove the rescue boat and edited the news footage.

On the way home, I fed 7,287 homeless people...

Picked up my F-22 and dropped some bombs on the enemy just 30 meters from the friendly, no collateral damage!!

Will be running on the Republican ticket for president in 2012.

Was hand picked by Joe Biden to man the first mission to Mars....I built the spacecraft and freeze dried the food.

I am a stud among men, having slept with more than 2,000,000 women in my 24 years...way more than Wilt Chamberlain.

I taught Einstein about the theory of relativity.

Matt Damon asked me for advice on the movie "Catch me if you can".

I understand women!!!

The Pope asked me about how to deal with pedophiles in the church.

I used to be a brain surgeon....

Best of all, I'm not a pilot, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!!!

UAL Furlough
 

Understanding women?? Come on, the rest I can respect. Understanding women......... What a fake you are.

You may use a torch to check wheel wells/inside engine nacelles but I don't remember seeing any on the wingtip of a EMB145 !!!!!

Matt Damon???
 

Sorry, Matt wasn't in Catch Me if You Can. It was Leonardo DiCaprio.

Apparantly it's the little things that make a difference like "saying your airplane " when handing over control.

Do they not normally bother then ?

Wow - some lawyer will likely bring a suit against the airline for improper dismissal. I assume the odds are at least 50%-50%.

How do we know the article was not fabricated by the writer? ...seems kinda dopey for him to make up stuff for an article; I don't see any financial gain that he could have gotten and, as someone observed earlier, this stuff does not seem to impact is ability to perform his job. If he put this stuff on a job application and it is not true, it might be different, I suppose.

April Fools anyone? The interview just made me laugh. How could anyone believe that.

FWIW there is a 27 odd page long thread on this going on over at FlyingSquadron.com - Military Aviation Portal & Forums to which, Airbubba, posted a link. In that thread they have more or less established, through various means of investigative work including statements from colleagues of his, that he is a pathological liar.

I've read through the whole thing and I can recommend it as one of the most hilariously entertaining reads in a long time. Far better than fiction.

Clowwwwwwnnnnnnn!!!!!!

Superman must own a pair of Timothy Martins pajamas. . .
 

. . . It's good to know that if I am faced with a lay off, that I could just go to the New York Fire Department and be a fireman, or go to the New Jersey Air National Guard and sign up to fly F16s. :ooh:

AND he also did not follow rule number one: "If you are going to lie, don't put your story onto the front page of a newspaper. What is it with these egocentrics, that they cannot keep it to themselves - do they want to get caught? :ugh:


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