This isn’t your captain speaking
COLOMBO – Sri Lankan police have detained a German man on suspicion that he used false documents to secure a job as a top pilot for Sri Lanka’s national carrier.
Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara told AFP the man had been flying for the company for 10 months before an internal probe found he was only qualified as a co-pilot, and not as a captain of a wide-bodied airliner.
“We are going to take over all the documents from personal files for our investigations,” Gunasekara said. “The German national is now being held by the airport police.”
Sri Lankan airline sources said the German national was discovered when a junior pilot, who had been sent for routine training on a bigger Airbus A340, noticed that the “captain” was uncomfortable with the controls.
However, he had still captained Sri Lankan flights to European destinations including London, Frankfurt and Paris, as well as Dubai, the sources said.
Ian Jarrett
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