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Tuesday August 21, 2007
SYDNEY, Australia (AP): Australian police are investigating a former Qantas employee who conducted safety checks on hundreds of international flights without a valid license, the airline said Tuesday.
Qantas' head of engineering David Cox said the employee joined the airline as an engineer in 2002, but won a promotion to a more senior role last year on the basis of forged credentials.
Airline officials confronted the man last month when a manager "became suspicious'' and discovered that he had not passed civil aviation exams required to work in that role, Cox said.
The man had not returned to work since. Qantas said it had referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.
Cox said Qantas had checked the qualifications of its remaining safety inspectors and found that they were "all above board.''
However, he said that although Qantas considered the alleged forgery a "very serious matter,'' the airline was confident that the former engineer's work had not put any passengers at risk.
"Qantas has checked everything he has worked on and it checked out,'' Cox said. "He was not some bloke off the street ... We are comfortable that the work he did was pretty safe.''
Source: The Star Online
I hope SQ doesn't have to resort to this to cut cost.
SYDNEY, Australia (AP): Australian police are investigating a former Qantas employee who conducted safety checks on hundreds of international flights without a valid license, the airline said Tuesday.
Qantas' head of engineering David Cox said the employee joined the airline as an engineer in 2002, but won a promotion to a more senior role last year on the basis of forged credentials.
Airline officials confronted the man last month when a manager "became suspicious'' and discovered that he had not passed civil aviation exams required to work in that role, Cox said.
The man had not returned to work since. Qantas said it had referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.
Cox said Qantas had checked the qualifications of its remaining safety inspectors and found that they were "all above board.''
However, he said that although Qantas considered the alleged forgery a "very serious matter,'' the airline was confident that the former engineer's work had not put any passengers at risk.
"Qantas has checked everything he has worked on and it checked out,'' Cox said. "He was not some bloke off the street ... We are comfortable that the work he did was pretty safe.''
Source: The Star Online
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How can this ever happen on a reputable airline?!?! I hope SQ doesn't have to resort to this to cut cost.