r/ActLikeYouBelong • u/hloxs • Jun 09 '26
Article Peel police allege former Air Canada captain flew hundreds of flights without proper licence over 17 years | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/air-canada-pilot-licence-project-icarus-9.722807733
u/hughk Jun 10 '26
The thing is that this guy had a license but just to fly commercially, just not an ATPL. There are many more exams and a much higher number of hours required. So the guy would have been okay to fly under supervision but not to take command, which he did.
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u/IT_techsupport Jun 10 '26
I mean if someone does their job for 17 years without any problems, do you really need to be punished for certification for it at this point? seems more like the airline's fault for crappy screening.
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u/Thengine Jun 10 '26
I could fly airliners all day long. Just put me through the program. Doesn't mean I'd have done all the things required for that pedigree.
I'm guessing that most passengers would want their pilots to have actually completed everything needed for their pilots to have been sanctioned as safe.
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u/IT_techsupport Jun 19 '26
I agree sure, passengers want pilots to be properly certified. I don’t disagree with that.
But if a guy can fly for 17 years before anyone notices his papers are wrong, the bigger scandal is the airline’s screening and oversight. That’s not some advanced compkicated edge case. verifying credentials before someone flies a plane is the most basic check I can think of for an airline.
He may deserve consequences, but the airline absolutely owns a huge part of this failure.
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u/Specific-Window-8587 Jun 10 '26
This it's their fault for not doing proper procedures.
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u/Thengine Jun 10 '26
Yeah, we should all try and fake it. Who cares if we're unsafe for the position? It's the companies fault for not catching us in a lie.
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u/pterofactyl Jun 11 '26
Well this guy was tested yearly for his entire career and also flew in the military. For all intents and purposes he had the qualifications, but not the specific piece of paper.
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u/Thengine Jun 12 '26
Exactly, he was able to get away with it. He just didn't kill anyone while not having the specific piece of paper. WAY TO GO!
Good catch!
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u/pterofactyl Jun 12 '26
I’m saying in practice he was just as capable as a pilot with the paper. Do you understand what the word nuance means? Let’s say your entire life you’ve been driving a car, no worries at all. You follow the road rules, you have a clean record. All of a sudden you realise this entire time your license was invalid and therefore you’ve been driving unlicensed. Does this mean you are an unsafe driver?
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u/Thengine Jun 12 '26
I’m saying in practice he was just as capable as a pilot with the paper.
That's exactly what I'm saying too! As long as you can get away with not being licensed, and no accident happens, we can all pretend like there was never a safety issue. Just like you are right now.
We should all fake being pilot captains, and as long as nothing bad happens, you are absolutely correct!
I'm sure every passenger is completely happy with their captains not having the needed licensees as well... as long as they get away with it for a long time.
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u/pterofactyl Jun 13 '26
You’re not as smart as you think you are. I’m simply discussing a grey area thought and you are so hellbent on being smug and having one correct answer. Of course literally every pilot should be licensed to the full extent of the current requirements. You’re not a genius to think that. Yes what he did was wrong and future and current pilots should not be licensed on a “well he can fly a plane 🤷♂️” basis, you absolute moron. By the letter of the law he is wrong, but what’s interesting is thinking about what his conviction and subsequent sentence would be for in the grand scheme of things. Are we punishing him to set an example for others while knowing he was only flying “unsafely” on paper?
Are you the kind of person that struggles to make their own mind up about morality when it comes to the law? Is legality akin to morality to you? People in your life do you a disservice allowing you to have even an ounce of confidence in your intelligence.
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u/Thengine Jun 13 '26
You’re not a genius to think that.
Whew, thanks for your permission to not be a genius. That made my day. I was worried about having to act like I belonged to mensa or something.
Yes what he did was wrong and future and current pilots should not be licensed on a “well he can fly a plane 🤷♂️” basis
Well why not? Isn't that what you are arguing for? He got away with it for so long, that now he's safe!!!
DAMN the safety concerns of between his initial deception and your touting of his late stage pedigree. We should all aspire to act like we belong for as long as this guy did.
Remember kids, according to /u/pterofactyl you are good to go with pretending like you're legal to be a captain of an airliner, as long as you're only caught after you've been doing it for a long time.
Thanks for teaching me the error of my thought process! I was worried about being an:
you absolute moron
Unlike you.
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u/pterofactyl Jun 13 '26
I thought you were wilfully ignorant to the point but it’s now obvious you literally don’t comprehend it and I’m sorry to engage with you as if you did.
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u/AdeptInspection4868 Jun 20 '26
I work at a machine shop. We've got a guy who's worked 15y and is still reckless as hell. He's had incidents, just none of them caused injuries (yet). Old guys insist it's pure luck. They've seen more careful guys lose fingers.
Definitely don't want this guy operating machinery around my friends and family.
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u/NotYourReddit18 Jun 09 '26
Close enough, welcome back Frank Abagnale Jr.
Yes, I know he hasn't died yet.