A Swedish pilot suspected of flying with a bogus license for 13 years was busted Thursday in his cockpit - as he was about to take off in a plane carrying 101 passengers.
The 41-year-old pilot was at the helm of a Boeing 737 bound for Turkey when Dutch cops collared him at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
Authorities said the audacious pilot had logged more than 10,000 flight hours using forged documents that helped him land gigs in Belgium, Britain and Italy.
The stress of carrying on the charade was apparently taking its toll: The pilot expressed relief when he was arrested.
"The pilot said he was relieved that his misdeeds had come to light, and he pulled off his stripes at the time of his arrest," a Dutch police statement said.
A tip from Swedish authorities led investigators to the pilot, who had worked for Turkish airliner Corendon for two years.
The Milan-based pilot had an expired commercial pilot license. Even if it was current, that license would not have qualified him to operate passenger flights.
The Swede, who lives in Milan, is awaiting trial for forging documents and flying without a license.
A lawyer for Corendon said the company had cooperated with police and had a reserve pilot prepared to take over the flight to Ankara.
No comments:
Post a Comment