Pilot Flies for 13 Years With Fake License

From the "this doesn't make me feel any more comfortable about flying" department comes word of a maintenance engineer who printed a fake pilot license on his home printer and used it to drive around 737s for thirteen years.

Thomas Salme flew back and forth between Sweden and the rest of Europe, and no one was any the wiser. It's rumored that he liked gladiator movies.

Fake license. Home printer. 737s.

Maybe things are a lot more loose in Europe than they are in the US. Heck, I need to take off my shoes and endure endless searches just to ride in the back of the plane here. This dude gets to fly it with no more than a homemade certificate and an official-looking hat.

There are certain positions that benefit from actual training in order to be considered qualified. Heart surgeon, dentist, nuclear power plant operator - all require a modicum of formal schooling. Apparently tooling around the friendly skies does not.

All you need is a couple of hours in a flight simulator and balls of steel.

Via Gizmodo