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Man jailed after faking being a Qantas aircraft engineer
I've got another Qantas story that came across my desk recently.The BBC is reporting that an Australian man is behind bars and facing two years in jail after it was found that he had faked being a Qantas engineer for 10 months
The guy's name is Timothy McCormack, and he admitted to some 42 different charges of deception, including forging an engineer's license.
He was caught posing as a supervising engineer checking some 30 Qantas 747 airplanes at Sydney airport.
A Sydney judge said McCormack put thousands of passengers' lives in jeopardy.
Qantas has been plagued with safety concerns this year, with several high profile incidents involving its aircraft. No word yet whether McCormack is being tied to a specific incident...
Filed under: Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
capt p. eric august Dec 23rd 2008 4:07PM
I HAVE BEENAN AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT FOR OVER 35 YRS AND HAVE HEARD STORIES LIKE THIS IN THE PAST. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS CAUSE BAD REPUTATIONS FOR ALL THE REST OF US, THAT IN FACT SPEND YRS STUDING AND LEARNING EVERYTHING NECESSARY TO BECOME CERTIFIED AS PILOTS ENGINEERS AND OR MECHANICS. IT TAKES A SACRAFICE OF TIME, EFFORT, MONEY AND COMMITTMENT TO TRAINING IN CIVILIAN AND OR MILITARY TO ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS. I HAVE NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY PEOPLE WHO ARE CAPABLE OF DOING THESE TYPES OF CAREER FIELDS WITH KNOWLEDGE DONT GO AHEAD AND GET THE CERTIFICATES FROM THE GOVERNING AUTHORTIES JUST LIKE ALL THE REST OF US HAVE HAD TO DO AND ENJOY ALL THE BENIFITS THAT THESE TYPES OF CAREERS OFFER AND NOT ENDAGER THEMSELVES, THEIR FREEDOMS, THEIR FAMLIES AND THEIR FUTURES! IT JUST TAKES A WRITTEN TEST AND A PRATICAL TEST AND YOU HAVE THE CERTIFICATE IN YOUR HAND ARE ARE NOW ABLE TO DO YOUR JOB WITH PROFESSIONLISIM AND SAFETY WITH RESPECT FROM YOUR PEERS AND THE UNIFORMED PUBLIC!
Vandar Dec 23rd 2008 5:50PM
My Dear Capt.,
You, first, Make the misunderstanding that he even cares to be professional in the sence that you are. He is a criminal and is probably considered a professional among his peers. The thrill of "can he pull it off" is so great, like drugs. In his mind he "punked" us all, if he had make it for a year, he likely would have had to up the stakes, and maybe done some other real bad actual harm to the planes. I have connections to fake papers, and two or three phone calls, lets call that a cursory check, and he certainly could do that or he wouldn't be have been there, it needs to be looked into down the line as far as possible, maybe they find terrorist connections, and some hidden project he was to do but fell thru at the time so he pushed the job so he could stay.... Who knows, but open your head beyond yourself and think out of your box. I mean no insults what so ever, I trust my pilot to be a professional, and have the client's interest ahead of your own, I truely only want to help your think process, I applaude you and all other pilots, you do something I can't, but need.
Tiwi Dec 23rd 2008 4:20PM
What i want to know is how come it took them this long to figure it out? And how did they find out to begin with? Maybe they need to re-evaluate the rest of their employees.
dave Dec 23rd 2008 4:33PM
Exactly! I have often wondered why anything takes so long to check and see if these people are legitimate or not. We can't board a plane without being cavity searched ,proof of id. and the people checking the plane get nothing like that? Sounds like a great deal needs to be evalulated on this aspect of airline saftey.
Drew Dec 23rd 2008 11:05PM
Capt. August. You should try using spell check. It's spelling like yours that makes people think less of you.
HapaHawaiian2009 Dec 23rd 2008 4:42PM
Man, they should have been able to figure that out just like that. I don't why it took them so long to discover that this man was posing as an employee and you'd think that with the familiar staff they have that they'd beable to right away notice that something isn't quite right. I hope this guy serves a very long life behind bars.
ZA1 Dec 23rd 2008 5:22PM
I PUT FLYING RIGHT UP THERE WITH BEING ABDUCTED BY A FO - IVE NEVER BEEN OFF GROUND IN ANY PLANE/HELI & I WOULDNT FOR ANYTHING - ITS STUPID. TAKE A CAR - TAKE A BOAT!
migz Dec 26th 2008 3:56PM
well, all i can say is, that guys is a GOOOOOD, just like in one of Leaonardo Di Caprio's movie, imagine those benifits of flying for free for just faking some docs, hmmmm another effects of too much movies.
sheila Jan 6th 2009 1:44PM
I always wondered if the airlines or airport companys make retired or fired employees return all of their uniforms? Its so easy to just don an uniform and walk into the airport an pretend to be an employee.
All uniforms should be accounted for in some form or another
Kat Dec 23rd 2008 5:46PM
Some people no matter how many credits to their name need to learn how to spell~
manchild Dec 23rd 2008 6:00PM
white people! only white people
Whitney Dec 23rd 2008 7:06PM
Uh. It didn't say the guy's race. Australians aren't only White.
Kevin Coakley Dec 23rd 2008 6:40PM
This man is nothing more then a con man. As a licsenced aircraft mechanic for 25 years, from a family that has over 100 years total time as aircraft mechanics,and a professor teaching Aviation Law and maintance human factors, this story has several troubling issues. First, how was this person able to "fake" the technical skill and knowlage needed to be an aircraft technician especially working with and incharge of real mechanics. Second, how was this person able to get ramp and aircraft access without going thru security checking.
When a pilot and pax get on a plane they put their lifes in the hand of the professonals who have checked and double checked the plane, one of the main reason that in the US less then 3% of all crashes and inflight emergencys are due to the mechanic. Another reason that the FAA and goverment should reconsider allowing other countries to perform heavy checks on aircrafts just to save corperations money.
Lynn Dec 23rd 2008 7:04PM
Another reason why I don't fly!!
And don't want to everrrrrrrrrr!!!!
john Dec 23rd 2008 7:33PM
Getting into the hangar or on the tarmac is fairly easy, but how did he wiggle his way onto the payroll?
nick Dec 23rd 2008 7:43PM
This is the type of mistake we will see in the coming 4 years with Obamas stupid cutbacks at the Defense Department and putting nut job Hillary at State Department. This women is not experienced, she is trying to build a power base incase Obama steps on his dork and she will try to run in 2012.
Henry Eroh Dec 23rd 2008 7:44PM
Ist let me say to all true pilots and mechanics there are not enough words to xpress thanks for the work you do nor enough time; from one who was in military aviation and seen enough things I do not fly very well and only with my pills but my wife does and for this guy to jeopradise her life as well as everyone else's is sad and no amout of punishment except one should be given. He should be treated as a vile sneaky murderer trying to happen. Thank god nobody was killed because of this idiot.
tryme123 Dec 23rd 2008 9:26PM
This is a whole lot of boloney, ...who did he report to , and who were his immeidate supervisors, mangers and in superior? How did he ever get pass the FAA without having he proper identificatons and pass to even go so far on this level without being investigated prior? who in authority is more responsible to even allow this person to go beyond this far for 10 months.
tryme123 Dec 23rd 2008 9:29PM
BALONY, ANY ONE IN HIS POSITION GOES THROUGH THOUROUGH INVESTIGATON BEFORE THEY EVE GO THIS FAR. THIS IS WHOLE LOT OF CRAP.
chris Dec 25th 2008 1:06AM
I flew Qantas from LA to Sydney a few years ago, 14 unbelievable torture hours in the smallest, narrowest airline seats on any plane I've ever been in. It was bad, bad, bad. Took me over a week for the pain in my leg to go away when I got home, think I developed a small clot from the cramped seating. Much as I like Australia I'll never visit again if Qantas is the way you have to get there.