Fake pilot finally caught.

[Greg McDonald]

From the BBC:

A Swedish pilot without a valid licence to fly has been arrested at Amsterdam as he was about to fly a jet with 101 passengers to Turkey, Dutch police say.

The 41-year-old man said he had been flying for European airlines for 13 years and had logged 10,000 hours.

Police said he once had a licence to fly small planes but it had expired and it did not allow him to fly large jets.

Reports say the man was relieved his long deception was uncovered and tore off his pilot's stripes in the cockpit.

Turkey's Corendon Airlines said he had been flying for the airline for two years and had "expertly misled the company with his false papers".

The airline said it had been alerted by police and had a pilot standing by to fly the Boeing 737 from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to Ankara.

Dutch police were acting on a tip-off from Swedish authorities.

The man is in custody awaiting trial for forging documents and flying without a licence.

[Mark Grima]

He got away with this for 13 years? In some respects you need say well done! On the other hand I hope the punishment is very severe, he would of endangered many many lives, perhaps more so early on during his stunt.

The quote of 10,000 hours in 13 years, is that a lot of hours, it sounds like it to me, its approx 57ish SYD-LAX flights per year! Seeing as though he was flying in Europe thats a lot of short hops around there...

Cheers

M

[Nathan Long]

That's an average of only 64 hours a month.

[Thomas Feldhaus]

Crazy aviation! Again! :D

[Adam G]

On the other hand I hope the punishment is very severe, he would of endangered many many lives, perhaps more so early on during his stunt.

Not really, the guy passed through the check and training system of a number of airlines, gained type endorsements and passed all of his cyclic training.

Another message board actually states he was the base Captain for the airline when he was finally caught!!

[Greg McDonald]

From NEWS.COM.AU:

A SWEDISH pilot who flew commercial airliners for 13 years with a fake licence said he never put passengers at risk.
Thomas Salme was caught last month as he was about to pilot a Boeing 737 from Amsterdam Shiphol to Ankara in Turkey.

He was arrested on suspicion of holding a fake pilot licence after a tip-off to Dutch authorities.

The 41-year-old had accumulated 10,000 unlicenced hours in the air.

He admitted he doctored his expired pilot’s licence and was fined €2000 ($2600) and banned from flying for a year.

Judges in Amsterdam rejected prosecution pleas for a custodial sentence last month and even praised his safety record.
"The moral point of view is that I feel ashamed that I did lie but I didn't ever feel, not once, feel that I put passengers in an unsafe position," Mr Salme told Sky News.

Mr Salme was working as a maintenance engineer for airline SAS when a friend let him 'fly' the firm's full-scale flight simulator while it was not being used, The Sun reported.

"I got the crackpot idea to apply as a co-pilot at a real airline so I made myself a Swedish flying permit with a logo out of regular white paper.

"It was a fantasy creation. It wasn't laminated and looked like something I'd made ay home.

"It was surprisingly easy."

Mr Salme is now writing a book about his experiences but added that no one could copy his behaviour as new checks mean a fake licence would be spotted.

Mr Salme is being compared to Frank Abagnale, the American who conned people into thinking he was a pilot.

Leonardo DiCaprio starred in the film Catch Me If You Can that told his story but Mr Salme denied the two men are similar.

"I feel my name is all over the world, my punishment is more than €2000," he said.