Fake pilots?

[Ralph Jones]

...on Pakistani airlines: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/busin...hnk/index.html

[Russell Holton]

Oh, man!

I wonder how they intend to identify the fake pilots in order to "ground them immediately"?

[Ray Tackett]

Oh, man!

I wonder how they intend to identify the fake pilots in order to "ground them immediately"?

May have known all along, but looked the other way until they got caught. Prettly typical corporate behavior.

Remember Gann's "Captain Dudley?" The guy was so awful a pilot that Gann went to the chief pilot of his airline about him. Chief Pilot did a checkride which went very badly. Dudley claimed prejudice, so they sent him up again with an FAA inspector, and he did even worse. The inspector insisted upon taking his certificate for a while, until Dudley could get his act together. He didn't have, and had never had, one. Gann went on to mention that, in thirty-ump years of airline flying, nobody had ever asked to see his certificate.

[Ralph Jones]

May have known all along,

Not exactly the same thing, but I remember a time in Orange County, back in the late Sixties, when there was a DPE who would pass anybody for a PPL. Everybody knew about him, and instructors would hold their noses and send their most hopeless students to him.

I was CFI'ing for my company's flying club at KSNA, and had one dream student. He picked up everything the first time and did it beautifully. When he was ready for his flight test, he just couldn't believe how good he was, and insisted on going to the easy DPE. Next time I ran across the DPE, he said "Why did you send that guy to me?"

Different times...suppose he wouldn't last long today. Might have to move to Pakistan.

[B.Butler]

I recall a TWA captain in the late 60s who was found to have a PPL.

[Ralph Jones]

I recall a TWA captain in the late 60s who was found to have a PPL.

Yeah, I was trying to remember what airline that was.

[Bruce Gorrell]

I recall a TWA captain in the late 60s who was found to have a PPL.

Are you sure it wasn't Eastern?

https://disciplesofflight.com/flying-without-a-license-pilot-conmen/

[B.Butler]

Are you sure it wasn't Eastern?

https://disciplesofflight.com/flying...-pilot-conmen/

Bruce, I am 76 years old. I am sure of nothing.

[B.Butler]

Google comes through:

Perhaps the most interesting of the “pilot conmen” to me is Jimmie Lane. Lane held only a Private pilot’s license but hoodwinked Eastern Air Lines into hiring him in 1958.

Jimmie Lane wanted to fly and he talked his way into cadet training for the Navy and, later Marines. He actually flew as pilot on bombers during the Korean War, being discharged in 1955 with two Purple Hearts from shrapnel wounds during combat. He returned to his native Texas and wangled a crop-dusting job, still holding only a Private license. He then moved to Guatemala and crop-dusted until being called in for an interview with Eastern.

He successfully trained and became line-qualified for Eastern as a co-pilot on Martin 404s, Douglas DC-4s, DC-6s, DC-7s, Lockheed Electras, Lockheed Constellations and Convair 440s. Not once in all of this training nor during the required check-ride events did anyone ask to see his license. During the Eastern interview, he told them he had a Commercial license which was partially true. He had a Guatemalan Commercial which was neither an ICAO recognized “real” pilot license nor acceptable by Eastern and his only recognized license was still was a Private.

After 11 years flying for Eastern, he stopped by the chief pilot’s office one day and mentioned he had just obtained a DC-9 type rating on his own. The secretaries updated their pilots’ master list and soon Lane’s seniority made him eligible to upgrade as captain on DC-9s. Because he feared that the paperwork at Eastern’s type rating school might tip off the FAA, Lane chose to schedule the check-ride without the benefit of any training. In the coming weeks, he consumed all he could from the DC-9 manual. On February 26, 1968, FAA examiner Clay Cairl administered the check ride to Jimmie Lane. At the completion of his exhausting check-ride, he felt good about his performance, proved he was master of the airplane and has passed the check ride. Then the examiner asked him for his pilot’s license. His little deception was over.


Inspector Cairl later stated that Lane could fly the airplane “well enough” although there were minor stumbles with some of the avionics. Immediately afterward, the FAA examiner contacted the FAA’s pilot records branch in Oklahoma City and Captain Lane’s record came back as “Airplane – Private – Single Engine Land.” He was called into the chief pilot’s office and described the meeting with somber-faced “suits” as a “kangaroo court.” He was fired and advised that the FAA would investigate (which they did and revoked his Private pilot certificate a couple weeks later). He appealed to the NTSB but the FAA decision was upheld although reduced to a one-year revocation with probation.

Jimmie Lane ultimately obtained a legitimate commercial license and worked for several companies as a corporate pilot. He then got hired by Atlantic Southeast Airlines in 1973 and achieved a legal type rating but the airline soon folded. Bouncing around from corporate job to corporate job in the southern part of the US, Lane next obtained a legit ATP and flew a Turbo Commander and a Hawker for a Louisiana corporation. From there he returned to his native region in Texas and contently settled into legally flying an MU-2 single pilot for a local company.⁵ He now is nearly 84 years old, still lives in Texas and has turned his attentions to God, providing daily devotional and inspiration messages to an Internet following.