Pilot with fake license flew commercial planes for 13 years - until he was caught

A successful 13 year career came to an end today, when Dutch police pulled a 41-year-old pilot from his plane. The pilot was minutes away from departing for Ankara, Turkey on his Corendon airlines flight.

The cops were acting on a tip from Swedish authorities, who discovered that the man was not in possession of a pilots license valid for commercial planes.

He did have a basic license for private planes, but he had falsified his credentials 13 years ago, and had been flying commercial planes ever since.

With over 10,000 hours in the cockpit, the pilot had obviously tricked authorities very well - and 10,000 hours without any safety incidents also means he must have known what he was doing up front.

Thankfully, Corendon airlines had been alerted to the upcoming arrest, and had already arranged for a replacement pilot to take his seat. A lawyer for the airline said the fake pilot would never fly for them again.

Oddly enough, this was the second time he had been caught - Swedish cops arrested him several years ago for the same reason, but when they summoned him, he couldn't be found, so they just "forgot" about it.

Filed under: Europe, Netherlands, Airlines, Airports