CAUGHT YOU! Man posing as captain flies hundreds of passengers across Europe
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "CAUGHT YOU! Man posing as captain flies hundreds of passengers across Europe")
Representative image for fraud pilot story
The captain of an airline turned out to be someone who held no credentials or qualifications to fly a plane. At best, he had been a co-pilot, but he managed to fool his employers and even flew hundreds of passengers across Europe.
A man in Lithuania became the captain of a plane and ferried hundreds of passengers across Europe after forging his documents. Reports suggest that he prepared fake certificates to become a captain on a Lithuanian airline. German outlet Aero Telegraph reported that he had only served as a co-pilot with Garuda Indonesia and was not qualified to be a captain on any plane. The duration for which he acted as captain on Avion Express has not been disclosed. Avion Express has confirmed that it employed the man as a captain. Notably, the airline is a “wet-lease” company that provides aircraft and full crews to other airlines. “The company recently became aware of unverified information regarding his professional experience. An internal investigation was immediately launched and is currently ongoing,” a company spokesperson told Aero Telegraph.
It is assured that its hiring procedures are in line with industry standards and they strive for "safety and compliance". Since the airline provides services to other airlines, the man got to be the captain on flights operated by other airlines across Europe while working for Avion Express. Eurowings, a German-based airline that had the unnamed man pilot its aeroplane, has reached out to safety experts for a more detailed examination of the matter. Avion Express has been in operation since 2005. Avia Solutions Group, a Lithuanian-owned holding group based in Ireland, runs it and charters flights to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
Man poses as flight attendant and pilot to take hundreds of free flights
This is not the first case of someone impersonating a pilot. A man in Florida flew for free on over 120 flights over six years by posing as pilots and attendants. Tiron Alexander claimed to be employed with seven different airlines to fly nonrev, which means, at no cost. He used the internal ticket portal of one airline to book flights on other airlines as well. To make himself look credible, he stole the credentials of actual airline employees and even stole their badge numbers. He had a total of 30 sets of credentials that he used to book flights for free. The impostor claimed to be either a pilot or a flight attendant to gain benefits.
