B737 pilot who had no valid license , arrested at Schiphol

[andorra-airport]

A Swedish pilot was arrested at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Tuesday on charges of flying commercial airliners with no valid pilot license for more than 13 years, authorities said on Wednesday.

The Swedish pilot was taken into custody on Tuesday around 10.45 p.m. local time during a joint operation by the Dutch Inspection of Traffic and Water and the KLPD Netherlands Police Agency. The 41-year-old pilot, who lives in the Italian city of Milan, is being accused of forgery and flying without a valid pilot license. He is scheduled to appear before a judge on Friday.

The Dutch Inspection of Traffic and Water was informed by Swedish authorities that the pilot was currently in the Netherlands and was using a false Airline Transport Pilot License, which is required for pilots of passenger planes. He was arrested in the cockpit of a Boeing 737, which he was scheduled to fly to the Turkish city of Ankara.

The operation was planned by the relevant Dutch authorities, who wanted to arrest him as he was preparing for the flight. The airliner, which was not immediately named, was briefed in advance - and was able to arrange a new pilot in advance.

The pilot, according to Dutch authorities, was once in possession of a valid Commercial Pilot License, but had since expired. However, this license was only valid for small commercial airplanes.

After his arrest on Tuesday, the pilot said he was relieved to have been caught. He said he had flown for more than 13 years on multiple airliners in Belgium, the UK and Italy. He has flown at least 10,000 hours during these years.

Edit-

Dutch news now reports that he was flying for Corendon.

CAI 0202 , Boeing 737-400 / TCTJC

[SmilingBoy]

Corendon is possible; yesterday, there was only a Turkish Airlines flight, and a Corendon flight from AMS to ESB.

[fretn]

http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail ... 100303_113

According to "het nieuwsblad", he was working for corendon.

[Depretair]

Same here ...
http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4281d021&opt=0

[regi]

and who tried to say very gently that something is wrong with Corendon?

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40177&p=227734&hili ... on#p227734

I add another extra job at Zaventem when Corendon will expand its services here: identity controller.
Reminds me of the movie "Catch me if you can" with Leonardo di Caprio who personated to be a Panam pilot.
But wait a second: that is based on a true story of Frank Abagnale who flew during 2 years on false papers 40 years ago !

I am very surprised that only this pilot is arrested. The entire managment of every organisation and company involved should be immediately removed, fired and cut of their pension and benefits plans as a vigourous lesson to every body involved. No second chance for those stiff lips. They should have known that the safety of hundreds - if not thousands - of people has been put at risk.
Every company that hired this semi-pilot should be barred to put an aircraft in the air again. They have made unexcusable mistakes - again and again. Their operations should be stopped immediately because they have proved to be completely unable to perform the basic personnel check. Imagine who else works in and around airports...
So yes, I say: shut down Corendon today, tomorrow could be too late.

[SmilingBoy]

They should have known that the safety of hundreds - if not thousands - of people has been put at risk.

Unlikely to be thousands. Usually, you only crash once...

So my gut feeling was right when I decided not to book with Corendon a few months ago although they offered a direct flight from Brussels to Turkey. Booked with LH instead (but cancelled later for unrelated reasons).

[Crosswind]

Don't shoot Corendon so hard... Air France killed more than 200 people last year, and KLM departed from a taxiway.

[regi]

They should have known that the safety of hundreds - if not thousands - of people has been put at risk.

Unlikely to be thousands. Usually, you only crash once...

So my gut feeling was right when I decided not to book with Corendon a few months ago although they offered a direct flight from Brussels to Turkey. Booked with LH instead (but cancelled later for unrelated reasons).

Thousands...what would be the death toll when a B-737 slams straight into a ful airport terminal, football stadium or pop concert ? Or hits 2 fully loaded B747 with +- 400 passengers on board each + their fuel. Start counting.
Doesn't happen? Nope, just as it is impossible that pilots without licences fly around for 13 years.

My very severe reaction on the managment is based upon the fact that you can not fool around with safety issues in aviation. The results can be so dramatic and instantanious.

[RoMax]

Don't only blame Corendon please!! That pilot is flying for 13 years without valid license, only a few years of these 13 years are for Corendon. This pilot flew for several other (big)airliners. Corendon is a small company, above of that a turkish company (no more explenation needed :p). But these other west European company's are much bigger, and we expect them as safe. You can't see something wrong with the license itself, and Corendon checked his history with the other airlines. And finally after severall months Turkey gave the permission to hire this pilot after they checked the pilot theirself.
So although I really don't like Corendon, I'm really suprised no one is talking about the airlines where this pilot was flying for more than 10 years before he goes to Corendon. You can't say that this was an easy thing for airliners to know that his license was false otherwise it was discovered by the first company he was flying for with his fake licenses.

[galaxy]

Don't shoot Corendon so hard... Air France killed more than 200 people last year, and KLM departed from a taxiway.

Oh my God, he was also flying for Air France and KLM .

[regi]

Don't shoot Corendon so hard... Air France killed more than 200 people last year, and KLM departed from a taxiway.

We still don't know the cause of the Air France crash. I have been forbidden to make any guess. So I will not elaborate.
Just 1 question: where was the Vincennes during the crash? We know how much the Vincennes loves civilian Airbusses...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655