Qantas in a flap over bogus engineer
SYDNEY – Qantas has been forced to review the licences of all its aircraft maintenance engineers after one was found to have inspected aircraft on international flights without a valid licence.
The Melbourne Age reported that the man, who was based at Sydney Airport, fled after Qantas management confronted him about “irregularities in his licence documentation” last month.
He had been responsible for signing off safety inspections conducted on international flights.
Qantas engineering’s executive general manager David Cox said it was a “one-off incident”, and that he was confident in the “robustness” of the organisation’s licence procedures.
“What we have [is] someone who has been allegedly presenting themselves as something they are not,” Cox said.
“Since then we’ve gone back and investigated all the work he has done … we’ve found nothing of concern.
“This guy has been employed in the aviation industry for eight to 10 years … he’s not someone off the street.
“We have also done a verification on all our other licence holders to make sure they are all in order.”
Cox said Qantas had had no contact with the man since confronting him.
He joined Qantas in 2002 from Kendall Airlines as a fourth-year apprentice and had had the appropriate qualifications for his job until about 12 months ago, Cox said.
He won a promotion to a more senior position last year on the basis of forged certificates.
The matter was now being investigated by Australian Federal Police and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Cox said.
Ian Jarrett
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