A former Air Canada pilot has been charged after flying for years without a proper license, Canadian police have said.
Geoffrey Wall, of Barrie, Ontario, is alleged to have operated as an airline captain between 2009 and 2025 without a license to fly large commercial passenger planes, according to Peel regional police.
He must of passed his Sim checks so he had the skills required?
I have no idea how it works in aviation industry.
Couple of years back in maritime FOC environment, there was a big scandal in India as well in Ukraine. Lotsa fake licences and corruption issues . I had on my social media profile untill 2025 lots of links from Indian crewing " Agents" who required some payments from applicants what was against MLC .
Also seen some complaints from users on my timeline who expressed their frustration. Cancelled all of this as it was not my concern. As far as i can see Ukraine is still a big problem due to massive endemic corruption there.
When the Philippines converted to STCW tickets they converted all the fake ones.
Thye did zero due diligence so cant explain how they got their tickets
Had an issue with 2 second mates who didnt have the skills, ( one was totally colour blind, didnt know what colours were on a modern chart) company went back to Philippines and they said they have real tickets but we cant say how they got them.
My experience is 50% are fake
Eng guys had many stories about Engineers who weren’t engineers
When you ask them which college did you go to they all say it burnt down.
Philippines gov had a gov department that issued all qualifications.
Shipping industry got control back from lots of pressure
Imagine what you could buy there???
It all started with MSC Rena on Astrolabe reef. . EU got pissed off and started audits and gave recommendations which untill now have not been realised. because of the pressure of European owners who need crews and also some organisations like INTERMANAGER who has all his gead stuck in the PH gov and their NGOs big fat asses.
But honestly prefer PH crew /officers as they obey orders while est europeans are recalcitrant and always have an opinion and are notorious complainers . So my choice is PH with fake or not fake licence. Can teach them. I do not need a philosopher or scientist but a working mule and I am fine.
In this case the pilot has thousands of hours as a First Officer, but didn’t obtain the required ticket to act as Pilot. The equivalent would be a Chief Mate sailing as Capt without a Master’s license. It’s not as egregious as they’re trying to make it
Considering that an airline pilot has to demonstrate his qualifications every six months the lack of a piece of paper is essentially meaningless. The regulators are just embarrassed that someone sneaked past them.
It’s not just a 3rd world issue. When I was with a ship management firm I discovered a chief engineer with a fake Danish license. Neither class or flag did anything about it, their excuse was that taking action might have negative reaction from IMO. Denmark quickly issued the guy with a new license that was obviously based on falsified sea time. He was more than a year short when discovered but just a couple of months later showed up with the new license.
Certainly not just a 3rd world issue.
Taking over my First Command a UK Flagged OSV they had just fired the 2/E as he was useless.
The Captain I was relieving knew I had not long got my ticket and asked me to have a look at this guys documentation. It was a photocopy of a Certificate but had the wrong wording for a Dangerous Cargo Endorsement.
When I spoke to HR about it the HR manager was shocked as he had got this guy from the UK Officer’s Union Agency.
I had a call later in the day from the UK licensing office saying they had been after this guy for some time and it was in the hands of the Police
The instances described by you and @Steamer are not frequent and are exceptional. There are no 100% foolproof systems. Glitches happen. The Indian and Ukrainian incidents were massive. They coped with them of course with holograms and other administrative tools but in cases where corruption is endemic if you know the right person and have the right money then things happen but not on a massive scale.
The STCW conversions mentioned by @powerabout did happen in masse but same happened in Germany after or about 1992 wher lotsa masters with puny , coastal and river endorsements suddenly become GT>3000 and could command deep sea larger units what made them super happy .
The older system in continental europe was not identical as in US as one can see here conoe masters, 5 ton masters , 20 ton masters and so on but it it was a bit similar. The STCW simplified this and some benefited and some not.
3rd world you say ?? Wow ,.
Have not heard that term in a long time in my neck of the woods . Global South or JUNGLE are the terms used in EU parlia -lament .
BTW . This number 244 keeps intriguing me . Are u a member of some concentration camp survivors associacion or fraternity or ligue?
It’s simply my pilots number Spo
Ahh So. Thanks .
Who could have thought it is simple as that.
I know that in Brtain , USA and INDIA maybe also Down Under, the use of acronyms is massive and they are great enthusiast of using them, having great fun und pleasure confusing with it non native English speakers.
I will steal their skills for a brief moment asking
WTF is spo ??
Is it : standard ( surely not sophisticated) plot obfuscation ???
Out of curiosity have asked AI agent and it has come with this material:
The acronym SPO has several meanings in English, depending heavily on the industry or context. The most common meanings span digital marketing, law enforcement, corporate business, and government operations. [1, 2]
WOW !!!
Digital Marketing & Tech
Law Enforcement & Government
Business, Finance & Logistics
Aviation & Space
May be you have in mind Second Party Option? or Special Police Officer ?
You British are very dangerous types with the use of double meanings and ambiquities . My hat off Mr. PILOT
Great pleasure reading your stuff here and may be tell his Majesty Aus-minor to come back and stop sulking like a hurt woman who saw another in same or simmilar dress. Better be like a beer bottle in the fridge who does not mind other bottles on the lower shelves.
Have a great day Herr 244
