An Air Canada pilot flew hundreds of flights and transported thousands of passengers while using a fake license for 17 years. Police report that he never obtained an ATPL-A, or Airline Transport Pilot License for Aeroplanes, which he needed to become a captain. Despite that, he served as a captain for Air Canada on over 900 domestic and international flights carrying tens of thousands of passengers.
According to NBC News, a “complex fraud and forgery investigation” revealed that a commercial airline pilot who flew for Air Canada from 1998 to 2025 had falsified a license required for his 2009 promotion to captain.
“This investigation and the details surrounding it read like a movie script,” Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Milinovich said in a news conference. “He rose to the position of pilot in command where for almost 17 years they flew Boeing 767s, 777, and 787s.”
Authorities made the discovery as part of a fraud investigation known as “Project Icarus” when a random certification check revealed the “anomalies … within the pilot license documentation.”
“This is very similar to a doctor that is licensed to practice family medicine but is doing brain surgery in their office,” Milinovich added. “There’s additional requirements and regulations to professional designations that exist for a reason. “We believe the accused misrepresented his qualifications to both his employer and the regulator.”
Police arrested the pilot on June 1 and charged him with seven counts, including fraud, uttering forged documents and public mischief.
Air Canada claims that the unlicensed pilot did not compromise safety
“Immediately upon Air Canada’s discovery of this, the individual was removed from active duty, and the company voluntarily reported the matter to Transport Canada,” the airline said.
Air Canada also claimed that “safety was not compromised by this incident,” noting that all of its pilots must “undergo mandatory recurrent training every six months to validate their flying competency, including a flight check with a certified Transport Canada check-pilot every 12 months.”
The company added that “throughout his employment with Air Canada, the individual in question was a fully trained pilot who held a valid Commercial Pilot License, and he successfully met or exceeded the required recurrent training, demonstrating a high level of competency to safely operate large aircraft.”