Air Canada pilot flew 16 without proper license?

Hengelo

Hengelo

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Hengelo
This story sounds pretty bonkers, but I have no idea how Canadian licensing works.

www.wcax.com

Air Canada pilot charged after allegedly flying without a proper license between 2009 and 2025

A former Air Canada pilot has been charged after flying for years without a proper license, Canadian police said Tuesday.
www.wcax.com www.wcax.com
www.bbc.com

Air Canada pilot accused of flying for 17 years without correct licence

Police said the pilot was discovered to have flown with forged credentials since he was promoted to captain in 2009. He faces several fraud-related charges.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
www.theguardian.com

Former Air Canada pilot charged after allegedly flying without proper license for 16 years

Geoffrey Wall is alleged to have flown over 900 flights domestically and internationally between 2009 and 2025
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
globalnews.ca

Police allege ex-Air Canada captain flew flights for decades with fraudulent licensing | Globalnews.ca

A former captain with Air Canada allegedly flew hundreds of flights for decades using fraudulent licensing documents, Peel Regional Police say.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
 
Our laws aren't that much different from yours. Some of them are word-for-word the same. This guy had a forged ATPL (ATP License) but did have a real Commercial license. Seems that Air Canada's HR, and Transport Canada, never dreamed that someone might forge a license. Not easy to forge, either; our licenses are in the same format as a passport booklet.

So how many others are out there flying big iron? Or doctoring the citizenry? Not a week before this we were told that there are fake doctors, mostly from a certain large southeast Asian country, who arrived here with counterfeit medical degrees. Somehow they got past the vetting process and are making big bucks in medical practice. Then of course we have fake Commercial truck drivers. The evidence is commonly seen in the highway ditches.
 
After WWII, flying for an airline without a civilian pilot certificate wasn’t all that uncommon.
 
This doesn't sound like a licensing problem to me. It sounds like an HR problem. If he worked someplace else first, you'd kinda think HR at the airline would check a reference. If he'd never flown anywhere commercially before, you'd think they'd check the Canadian airman database to see if he actually had an ATP?

Or does Transport Canada just have a big spiral notebook with all the pilot's names in it, like they used to do down the street at the Elks? (kidding with this last one...I think.)
 
Albany Tom said:
This doesn't sound like a licensing problem to me. It sounds like an HR problem. If he worked someplace else first, you'd kinda think HR at the airline would check a reference. If he'd never flown anywhere commercially before, you'd think they'd check the Canadian airman database to see if he actually had an ATP?

Or does Transport Canada just have a big spiral notebook with all the pilot's names in it, like they used to do down the street at the Elks? (kidding with this last one...I think.)
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Appears to be more than an HR problem.

Barrie resident Geoffrey Wall, 59, was arrested on June 1 and charged with fraud over $5,000, two counts of uttering a forged document, three counts of possession of a counterfeit mark and public mischief.
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AquaLand said:
Appears to be more than an HR problem.
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Oh for the pilot, I'm sure. But if I, say, go too fast and the police pull me over, I hand them my license. Unless I'm trying to impersonate someone else, it doesn't do me any good to have a forged document...because he's going to run the numbers and find out very quickly if I'm legal to drive. Bringing that back to aviation, to join one of the flying clubs over at ALB, they run a lightweight background check on you AND they check the FAA database to make sure you're actually a licensed pilot. I'm thinking either someone at the airline missed that step in the hiring process, or somebody is quickly adjusting their procedures. That's assuming he wasn't impersonating the identity of somebody else who was an ATP.
 
I'm guessing the state of online/electronic lookup wasn't great back in 1209 AD when he was hired...
 
Let him resign and take whatever pension he has earned.
 
I think they found out *after* he retired.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Our laws aren't that much different from yours. Some of them are word-for-word the same. This guy had a forged ATPL (ATP License) but did have a real Commercial license. Seems that Air Canada's HR, and Transport Canada, never dreamed that someone might forge a license. Not easy to forge, either; our licenses are in the same format as a passport booklet.

So how many others are out there flying big iron? Or doctoring the citizenry? Not a week before this we were told that there are fake doctors, mostly from a certain large southeast Asian country, who arrived here with counterfeit medical degrees. Somehow they got past the vetting process and are making big bucks in medical practice. Then of course we have fake Commercial truck drivers. The evidence is commonly seen in the highway ditches.
Click to expand...
Can’t believe anyone would goto that much trouble to live in Canada.

:-)
 
The whole problem is because the otherwise lovely residents of Canada have no idea what ketchup is, or that the Heinz factory is just south of them turning out the stuff in train car loads. So instead of ketchup, they resort to whatever is handy to put on top of fries. Soup, gravy, vinegar, almost-cheese, random things from unlabeled cans in the cupboard, etc. More or less they're just using french-fries like someone in a garage uses oil-dry.

I'm certain of this because I have friends from western NY, and sometimes people wander over the border.

So anyway, I still don't know how the airline didn't bother checking to see if the guy had an ATP (say "online database", not "paper document"), but if they wanted to check to see if he was really Canadian they could've put a plate of the p stuff in front of him. Dives in? Canadian. Looks puzzled and asks "what the hell is that?" Not Canadian.
 
Albany Tom said:
The whole problem is because the otherwise lovely residents of Canada have no idea what ketchup is, or that the Heinz factory is just south of them turning out the stuff in train car loads. So instead of ketchup, they resort to whatever is handy to put on top of fries. Soup, gravy, vinegar, almost-cheese, random things from unlabeled cans in the cupboard, etc. More or less they're just using french-fries like someone in a garage uses oil-dry.
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Where do Americans get such myths? Ketchup is everywhere in Canada. The supermarkets are full of it, in several brands. Any restaurant has lots of it, often a whole bottle on the table. The fast-food restaurants have pump dispensers and little paper cups for it. Everybody has it in their fridge.

That Heintz factory used to be in Canada. And now it's back. https://www.todocanada.ca/kraft-hei...-condiment-heinz-ketchup-to-return-to-canada/

https://www.tri-mach.com/blog/how-much-do-canadians-love-ketchup/

What does it say on the front of those boxes of ketchup bottles?

1782233724443.png
 
My wife and I drove the Canadian section of the International Selkirk Loop (BC) just last week. I remember 4 meals between us came with French fries, ketchup was either already on the table, or arrived with the fries. No need to even ask for it.

That mirrors my experience in Ontario, on many annual dive trips to the St. Lawrence Seaway. If the meal came with fries, the fries came with ketchup.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Where do Americans get such myths? Ketchup is everywhere in Canada. The supermarkets are full of it, in several brands. Any restaurant has lots of it, often a whole bottle on the table. The fast-food restaurants have pump dispensers and little paper cups for it. Everybody has it in their fridge.

That Heintz factory used to be in Canada. And now it's back. https://www.todocanada.ca/kraft-hei...-condiment-heinz-ketchup-to-return-to-canada/

https://www.tri-mach.com/blog/how-much-do-canadians-love-ketchup/

What does it say on the front of those boxes of ketchup bottles?
Click to expand...

I've never been happier to be wrong. Long live North America!

(I still stand by the comparison of the P stuff and oil dry, though.)
 
GaryM said:
My wife and I drove the Canadian section of the International Selkirk Loop (BC) just last week. I remember 4 meals between us came with French fries, ketchup was either already on the table, or arrived with the fries. No need to even ask for it.

That mirrors my experience in Ontario, on many annual dive trips to the St. Lawrence Seaway. If the meal came with fries, the fries came with ketchup.
Click to expand...
Yeah. American born and raised but I don’t much care for ketchup. It’s ok sometimes.

We have some in the fridge but it’s spicy ketchup. I like that better.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Yeah. American born and raised but I don’t much care for ketchup...
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An uncle who spent many years in the Federal Republic mixes yellow curry powder into mayo for pommes frites.
 
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