A senior South African pilot has been asked to resign after a revelation that he had flown commercial planes for over 20 years with a forged license.
William Chandler, a pilot with South African Airways (SAA) was discovered to have a fake airline transport pilot license following an investigation into an incident during a flight he piloted.
A senior SAA pilot, William Chandler, was forced to resign this year after the airline discovered he had flown aircraft for more than 20 years with fraudulent paperwork and had refused to be promoted to captian as he feared being exposed https://t.co/thY4FQ8Qb1
— Sphelele (@SpheDludla) March 1, 2019
According to The Mail and Guardian, the incident occurred in November 2018 during a flight from O.R. Tambo International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany.
SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said that investigation into the incident that occurred over the Swiss airspace lead to the discovery of the fake license.
“The pilot had successfully completed all required safety training. However, we find it disconcerting that misrepresentations were made about the type of license that the pilot claimed to possess,” Tlali said.
A senior SAA pilot, William Chandler, was forced to resign this year after the airline discovered he had flown aircraft for more than 20 years with fraudulent paperwork and had refused to be promoted to captian as he feared being exposed https://t.co/thY4FQ8Qb1
— Sphelele (@SpheDludla) March 1, 2019
According to the spokesperson, the airline now wants Chandler, who joined them as a pilot in 1994 to pay back the money he had fraudulently earned.
Fake Russian pilot
In 2018, a highly regarded Russian pilot Taras Shelest turned out to be a fraud.
Despite having never attended aviation classes and instead faking his diploma, Shelest allegedly flew thousands of people all around the world for several years, until a bizarre incident finally exposed him.
In August of 2015, Shelest was a co-pilot on a passenger flight from Moscow to Cyprus. When entering Ukrainian airspace, he contacted the ground controller as per protocol, only instead of sticking to the strict technical language, he used a very peculiar greeting- “Glory to Ukraine!”
This was apparently so unusual that Shelest was reported to his company’s security service, which in turn contacted the FSB, Russia’s federal security service.
The man was not even a real pilot, but a flight enthusiast who had taught himself to fly using flying simulators and faked his aviation university diploma.
This William Chandler, a fake pilot who worked as a Senior Pilot for more than 20 years at SAA. He has fraudulent license & he was discovered after a reportable incident. He is not arrested because he is white. Retweet if you agree it’s the case. pic.twitter.com/u6Dsv0VCJU
— White Man Confession (@ConfessionWhite) March 1, 2019
Angry South Africans were infuriated after authorities failed to arrest him terming it was because of his race.