Tripoli, 7 May 2013:
A pilot who used forged documents to fly planes for Afriqiyah Airways for eight months has been jailed . . .[restrict]for three years and one month in the UK.
Former US Air Force pilot Michael Fay piloted an Airbus 320 aircraft for Afriqiyah between 2010 and 2011, having obtained the job using a forged commercial pilot’s licence and fake medical certificates.
Another pilot alerted the police, after becoming suspicious of Fay on an internet chatroom, leading to Fay’s arrest on 3 February 2011.
Fay was sentenced, in absentia, to three years’ imprisonment for fraud on 3 May 2013, having absconded before his case came to court. While on the run, he is believed to have travelled, using a fake passport, to Qatar, Germany and Ireland.
Fay handed himself over to Winchester Police Station in the UK on Monday 3 June. An additional month has been added to his sentence for failing to turn up to his original court hearing.
Afriqiyah said in statement released on 12 May that his engagement may have been arranged through a third-party broker, who should have vetted his documents. It said that the apparent use of forged documents had made the airline “an unwitting victim in his criminal endeavours”.
The UK police described Fay as “a clever and resourceful man,” who had “targeted Libyan aviation at a time when the country’s political and economic standing was vulnerable and volatile”. [/restrict]
