Story Archive

Air Out

In South Africa, airline pilot licenses have to be renewed every year; licensees even have to perform in a flight simulator. William Chandler flew for South African Airways for two decades, yet the airline now says his license was forged. SAA didn’t discover the problem when Chandler declined to be promoted from senior first officer to captain with other pilots hired the same year, a promotion that would have involved resubmitting paperwork. It only discovered it when Chandler was involved in a “reportable incident” in the air en route from the Johannesburg area to Frankfurt, Germany, and then the company investigated. (AC/Johannesburg Mail & Guardian) ...If it took 20 years for there to be an incident warranting investigation, maybe he was good enough without a license.