An Air Canada pilot was arrested for flying “hundreds of flights” without the required license in a fraud investigation called Project Icarus.
- The pilot had a valid Commercial Pilot License and completed recurrent training
- They had the required license to be a co-pilot, but not captain
- He is no longer employed by the airline
The pilot is charged with 18 counts under CARs 401.03(1)(a), and faces a $67,500 administrative monetary penalty for acting as flight crew privileges without holding the appropriate license between December 2024 and March 2025, which may be the charged sample rather than the full span of affected flights. Air Canada says that they audited their pilots and found no other similar issues.
Air Canada says there was “no safety issue” because the pilot held a valid Commercial Pilot License, completed recurrent training every six months, and had recurring flight checks. He reportedly lacked the required captain-level license, not any pilot license.
A Canadian airline first officer can operate with a ‘Commercial Pilot Licence — Aeroplane’ plus the necessary medical, instrument rating, aircraft type rating, recurrent training, proficiency checks, and operator training. But after he was promoted to captain without the Air Trasport Pilot License. He likely did not complete (or successfully complete) the written exams, since the issue wouldn’t have been flown hours.
There have been several other Catch Me If You Can-style incidents.
- A Florida man scored 120 free flights by posing as a pilot and a flight attendant.
- A former Mesa Airlines employee (who lasted just four months in 2015) learned enough to use fake credentials to book 1,953 free Spirit Airlines flights in 21 months.
- A 19-year old created a fake ID of a Singapore Airlines co-pilot to scam 50 people and impress women. But it was a 15-year old that figured out he was full of it and turned him in.
- Meanwhile, a United Airlines flight attendant was caught after living 23 years under someone else’s name who had died young, obtained their passport and shortened the name – even renewing their passport several times and sponsoring U.S. residency for their partner (since he was a ‘citizen’)!
- Of course the damage done by most of these is small. It’s not like actually flying commercial planes without the proper credentials. But then 30% of Pakistan International Airlines pilots were discovered to have been doing that.
Perhaps most famously, William Chandler was a South African Airways pilot who became infamous in 2019 for operating commercial flights for more than 20 years without valid credentials. He was a senior first officer, flying Airbus A340s long haul. He had forged his Airline Transport Pilot License.
Chandler legitimately held a commercial pilot’s license (which allowed him to serve as a co-pilot), he falsified credentials to hold a more advanced license required for the long-haul international routes he operated. This unraveled in November 2018 during an incident over Switzerland onboard SA206 from Johannesburg to Frankfurt. He improperly executed an avoidance maneuver over the Swiss Alps, which triggered a review that uncovered his fraudulent credentials.
Named it “Icarus” … *chef’s kiss*
Shame on the pilot, sure. But Seems the lion’s share of liability belongs to Air Canada itself for scheduling a non-credentialed pilot to act as captain for numerous flights over a prolonged time period.
What’s AC’s excuse?
Ernest Gann’s wonderful book about flying commercial airliners from the 1930s to the 1950s, “Fate is the Hunter” (later distorted to just one incident in a John Wayne movie) mentioned “Dudley” (probably a man named Barwick). He made many claims about all the things he could do, including flying an airliner, but had little or no instrument training. Gann’s line hired him, and after several close calls fired him. He did it again at another line and this time killed people, probably a National crash in 1951. Extreme self-confidence and a lack of modern checks on skills and certifications carried him to disaster. And of course there is “The Great Impostor” (very loosely shown in a Tony Curtis movie) who performed successful surgery as a Canadian Navy doctor during the Korean War. He was good at following printed directions.