Oakland police helicopter pilots indicted

Brad Z said:
I'm shocked, three doofuses basically threw away their entire aviation careers and will face jail time because they were too lazy to actually do the flights.
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I’m not. People do dumb ****. All three of these people lived on the same side of the line that separates the regulator from the regulated. Just not surprised.
 
Let’s not forget presumed innocent until proven guilty.

This one is funny to me: “Both cases arise as a federal judge weighs on whether to end the Oakland Police Department's 23 years of federal oversight.” How about instead, the judge ends Fed oversight because it didn’t make a difference and was a waste of money? Instead they’ll get more oversight and over another quarter century.

Why am I such a crank?
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Let’s not forget presumed innocent until proven guilty.

This one is funny to me: “Both cases arise as a federal judge weighs on whether to end the Oakland Police Department's 23 years of federal oversight.” How about instead, the judge ends Fed oversight because it didn’t make a difference and was a waste of money? Instead they’ll get more oversight and over another quarter century.

Why am I such a crank?
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Because you know things
 
Lindberg said:
Why's that?
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Life experience as a former law enforcement officer and 32 years of experience in aviation. Stupid people are everywhere, even within law enforcement and regulatory organizations. Mix stupid with authority and you get things like what’s in this news story. I’ve seen the lines of ethics crossed by many human beings that bought into the idea the rules they enforced did not apply to themselves since they were the rule enforcement. Happens a lot unfortunately. It’s just not surprising.

Why do you ask?
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Life experience as a former law enforcement officer and 32 years of experience in aviation. Stupid people are everywhere, even within law enforcement and regulatory organizations. Mix stupid with authority and you get things like what’s in this news story. I’ve seen the lines of ethics crossed by many human beings that bought into the idea the rules they enforced did not apply to themselves since they were the rule enforcement. Happens a lot unfortunately. It’s just not surprising.

Why do you ask?
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About the only thing I remember from Psych101 was the professor saying cops and criminals often have the same psychological makeup, it’s just which side of the badge they happen to fall on. Don’t know if her opinion has merit, but it’s what I remember.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Life experience as a former law enforcement officer and 32 years of experience in aviation. Stupid people are everywhere, even within law enforcement and regulatory organizations. Mix stupid with authority and you get things like what’s in this news story. I’ve seen the lines of ethics crossed by many human beings that bought into the idea the rules they enforced did not apply to themselves since they were the rule enforcement. Happens a lot unfortunately. It’s just not surprising.

Why do you ask?
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Because the idea of cops from California conspiring with a safety inspector from across the country to dummy up checkrides sure as hell surprised me. It's not something I've seen before. But I guess you have.
 
Doc Holliday said:
William Miller, an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector based in Florida.
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When FAA has had problems with a DPE it’s revoked certificates of any pilots that were signed off by that Examiner.

I don’t know all the authority an ASI has, but could other pilots get caught in this as collateral damage?
 
Matthew said:
When FAA has had problems with a DPE it’s revoked certificates of any pilots that were signed off by that Examiner.

I don’t know all the authority an ASI has, but could other pilots get caught in this as collateral damage?
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The FAA doesn’t revoke the certificates, but they do allow the affected pilots to retest for it.

But ASI’s rarely give ratings except in certain instances, 98% of that is delegated to DPE’s. So the chances of a lot of pilots being affected by this are slim.
 
Doc Holliday said:
The FAA doesn’t revoke the certificates, but they do allow the affected pilots to retest for it.

But ASI’s rarely give ratings except in certain instances, 98% of that is delegated to DPE’s. So the chances of a lot of pilots being affected by this are slim.
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Yep, google “mass 44709” for an FAA Inspector, lol, you won’t find any. They do ones and twos of practical tests, not hundreds like designees do.
 
So my students can’t get a DPE for a private checkride for months and have to pay cash and often travel hours away for the convenience of the DPE…. , YET these cops pass check rides without even going up and the FAA examiner is not even in the state at the time? What a great system….the FAA corruption continues….they will likely make the inspector administrator.
 
Lindberg said:
Because the idea of cops from California conspiring with a safety inspector from across the country to dummy up checkrides sure as hell surprised me. It's not something I've seen before. But I guess you have.
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Specifically this scenario, no. Ethically identical. You betcha.
 
Beyond what POSes they are and need to be in prison, I don’t get why they even needed helicopter instrument ratings. OPD’s helo is a VFR-only model, plus law enforcement helicopter air support is 100% VFR, especially within the confines of a fairly small (geographically) city. Maybe they were banking on some side hustle flying 135. Either way, if they were so unsure of their abilities in passing a checkride that they felt compelled to rig such a scheme, they need to have their certificates emergency revoked.

I am sure that OPD already has expanded the internal affairs investigation to the air support unit supervision, as well as the command staff of whatever bureau they operate under. Wouldn’t be surprised to find out that faking training and certification records exists outside that unit. Reno PD recently terminated their chief and most of the comand staff for the same thing. OPD has been a mess for decades.
 
AlphaPilotFlyer said:
So my students can’t get a DPE for a private checkride for months and have to pay cash and often travel hours away for the convenience of the DPE…. , YET these cops pass check rides without even going up and the FAA examiner is not even in the state at the time? What a great system….the FAA corruption continues….they will likely make the inspector administrator.
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Are your students also facing prison time? :rolleyes:
 
ateamer said:
I am sure that OPD already has expanded the internal affairs investigation to the air support unit supervision, as well as the command staff of whatever bureau they operate under.
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Um no. This is likely the most corrupt and mismanaged outfit in the US. Certainly a top 5 candidate. Their misdeeds and uselessness are boring daily news at this point.
 
The link says Court documents allege the scheme involved William Miller, an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector based in Florida. A web search says a Miller is based in Georgia.
 
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