Simviation Forum - Drivers license please...

Mar 3^rd, 2010 at 3:22pm

Crash Ex Member

Next time I fly, I want to see their licences...

http://www.startribune.com/world/86226377.html

Carlo Wink

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Reply #1 - Mar 3^rd, 2010 at 3:33pm

DaveSims Offline
Colonel
Clear Lake, Iowa

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Posts: 2453

This same thing happened many years ago (1970s I believe), I think for Continental. The guy had flown for several years, accumlated thousands of hours, flown several different types of airliners, then one day the FAA ramp checked him. Turned out he never had a license. Somewhere along the line during the hiring process, no one ever asked for it. The just took his word on his resume that he was a licensed pilot.

Dave

www.flymcw.com

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Reply #2 - Mar 4^th, 2010 at 6:23am

expat Offline
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Deep behind enemy lines!

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The irony here is that after 10,000 hours his licence is just a bit of administrative paper. He has obviously passed every 6 month simulator requirement and mandatory check flights or he would not be flying in the first place. Not to mention he has flown for several airlines too. Each with their own training and continuation program. Not that I an condoning this person, but I suspect that this has more to do with the embarrassment and company insurance factor than flight safety, oh and a generation of pissed pilots who would also have liked to have saved all that training money Grin

Matt

PETA People Eating Tasty Animals.

B1 Boeing 737-800 and Dash8 Q-400

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Reply #3 - Mar 4^th, 2010 at 12:59pm

SaultFresh Offline
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Flight Instructor, CYKZ
Woodbridge, Ontario

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I think it's kind of funny. Like, obviously this guy was a good enough pilot to stay off the radar for the last ten years, or he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did. It kinda goes to show that pretty much anyone can fly a plane. I'm not saying what he did was right though, and I wouldn't encourage a single person to do what he did, but I still think it's funny.

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Reply #4 - Mar 4^th, 2010 at 4:10pm

DaveSims Offline
Colonel
Clear Lake, Iowa

Gender:
Posts: 2453

SaultFresh wrote on Mar 4^th, 2010 at 12:59pm:

I think it's kind of funny. Like, obviously this guy was a good enough pilot to stay off the radar for the last ten years, or he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did. It kinda goes to show that pretty much anyone can fly a plane. I'm not saying what he did was right though, and I wouldn't encourage a single person to do what he did, but I still think it's funny.

As the Colgan accident showed, you don't have to be good to get and keep a job as an airline pilot. As more information comes out on this story, turns out this guy did have a commercial license, but had let it expire. It wasn't like they let some guy in from the street with no license. More of a paperwork issue, although he never an ATP.

Dave

www.flymcw.com

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Reply #5 - Mar 4^th, 2010 at 4:13pm