PILOTS FLYING COMMERCIAL PLANES without the proper licenses? It sounds unbelievable, but it has actually happened more than once. These five surprising cases show a mix of clever fraud, forged documents, and some surprising slip-ups by airlines and regulators. From experienced captains who flew for years to imposters who faked their way into the cockpit, the stories are as worrying as they are fascinating. The good news? Authorities say passengers were never in real danger thanks to regular training and checks. Still, they leave us wondering how these things went unnoticed for so long.

The Canadian pilot has recently been booked under charges of fraud, uttering forged documents, possessing a counterfeit trademark, and public mischief. In June 2026, Geoffrey Wall, who had been a commercial pilot with Air Canada for over 17 years, was arrested and removed from his duty. During his time there, he piloted over 900 international and domestic flights while serving as an airline captain without an airline transport pilot license (ATPL). 

ATPL is the highest level of pilot certification required for captains of commercial aircraft.

Authorities assert that despite Wall not holding a valid ATPL license, passengers were not at real risk of any kind as every Air Canada pilot is mandated to undergo competency training every six months. In addition, Wall did possess a valid commercial pilot license. 

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Swedish-born pilot Thomas Salme piloted many Boeing 737 aircrafts working with three airline companies, serving as both first officer and captain for over 13 years. His only aviation license to his name was that of a Private Pilot license. However, Salme did cook up a strange backstory to prove his credibility, involving a fictional airline called Aladdin Airways.

Salme had previously been employed as an engineer in Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), wherein he managed to learn how to operate a 737 aircraft with the help of a friend who allowed to spend hundreds of hours at a 737 flying simulator.

Armed with hours of flying “experience” he gained via flying simulator and the name of one fake airline on his CV, Salme earned his first job at Air One which expanded into a 13 years flying career. In April 2010, a Dutch court convicted him for document forgery and sentenced him to a one-year flying ban in addition to a €2,000 fine.

In March 2019, a South African Airways (SAA) pilot named William Chandler resigned from position after it was revealed he operated as a pilot for 20 years with a fake license. 

Before his fake career as a pilot began, Chandler worked with the state-owned SAA as a flight engineer. In 1994, armed with only a commercial pilot license (and not an airline transport pilot license which is mandatory for long-haul international flights), he was somehow appointed as Senior First Officer. While he was only monitoring pilot, meaning he wasn't in charge of piloting any commercial aircraft, authorities did become suspicious when a plane in his control “made some strange turns” after encountering turbulence over the Swiss Alps. 

After authorities discovered that he didn't possess an ATPL, Chandler resigned from SAA.

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Michael Fay is a former US Air Force pilot who became infamous for forging his commercial flying credentials and fraudulently operating passenger jets. Fay faked his commercial pilot licenses, medical certificates, and documentation to get a contract job with the Libyan firm Afriqiyah Airways. Therein, he successfully operated Airbus A320 commercial aircraft for over eight months. This included landing passenger jets at London's Gatwick Airport on eight separate occasions

Eventually, a fellow pilot grew suspicious of Fay’s technical ability as a pilot during a discussion and afterwards alerted the authorities which led to his conviction in February 2011.

Parminder Kaur Gulati was working as a pilot with IndiGo airlines when her faulty landing techniques raised some eyebrows within the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA). In January 2011, Gulati made a rough landing at Goa airport by using the plane’s nose wheel to touch down instead of using the rear landing technique. When the plane flew back to Delhi, its nose wheel developed a snag which raised doubts about Gulati's capability as a commercial pilot.

Investigations into the matter revealed that Gulati had used faulty landing techniques several times; it was also revealed that she did not possess an airline transport pilot license and submitted forged documents to prove otherwise. After the revelations came to light, the DGCA revoked Gulati’s pilot license.

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