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

Former hose skipper charged with fraud aft allegedly commanding much than 900 flights without required credentials.

A erstwhile hose aviator successful Canada has been arrested for allegedly flying hundreds of flights without a due licence for astir 17 years.

Police successful Peel, Ontario, said connected Tuesday that they had charged erstwhile Air Canada skipper Geoffrey Wall with fraud and different charges pursuing a four-month investigation.

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The Peel Regional Police said Wall, 59, had utilized fraudulent aviator licences to bid much than 900 home and planetary flights betwixt 2009 and 2025.

Police said they obtained evidence to suggest that Wall had deceived some Air Canada and civilian aviation authorities astir his credentials earlier his status successful 2025.

While Wall did clasp a valid commercialized aviator licence, helium did not person an hose transport aviator licence, the highest level of aviator certification required to skipper commercialized aircraft, constabulary said.

Wall faces 1 number of fraud, 2 counts of uttering forged documents, 3 counts of possessing a counterfeit trademark, and 1 number of nationalist mischief.

Al Jazeera was incapable to find Wall’s ineligible representatives for comment.

“This lawsuit is profoundly concerning and strikes astatine the bosom of nationalist spot and safety, arsenic the accused is alleged to person enactment hundreds of thousands of passengers astatine hazard crossed much than 900 home and planetary flights,” Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said successful a statement.

Air Canada said that portion it viewed the pilot’s alleged actions with “utmost seriousness”, rider information had not been compromised, arsenic each pilots acquisition mandatory grooming each six months to measure their competency, successful summation to an yearly formation cheque with a certified pilot.

The hose said that Wall had “successfully met oregon exceeded” his grooming requirements and demonstrated “a precocious level of competency to safely run ample aircraft”.

The Canadian emblem bearer besides said it had recovered nary different instances of non-compliance with licensing requirements pursuing an audit of its pilots.

“Immediately upon Air Canada’s find of this, the idiosyncratic was removed from progressive duty, and the institution voluntarily reported the substance to Transport Canada,” the hose said successful a statement.

Hassan Shahidi, a licensed aviator who heads the US-based Flight Safety Foundation nonprofit, described the charges against Wall arsenic an “exceptionally uncommon case”.

“If the allegations are proven, the cardinal contented isn’t that an untrained idiosyncratic was flying airliners, but that this aviator bypassed a cardinal regulatory request for galore years,” Shahidi told Al Jazeera.

“The lawsuit could constituent to weaknesses successful licence verification and oversight processes, peculiarly if fraudulent credentials were capable to evade detection for truthful long.”

Shahidi said that Wall’s alleged actions did not look to person exposed passengers to the aforesaid level of hazard that they would person faced if an untrained aviator were astatine the controls.

“The larger interest is the evident nonaccomplishment of a regulatory safeguard that is expected to guarantee spot successful the system,” helium said.