He had a false license, had carried passengers for 24 years and had been discovered by rare maneuvers on a flight.

A commercial airline asked for the resignation of one of its older pilots earlier this year after discovering that had flown a commercial airplane for over 20 years with a fake license, the newspaper reported Mail & Guardian.

William Chandler, who worked for the airline South African Airways (SAA) for 24 years after being hired in 1994 he was forced to resign after an investigation into an "irregular incident" on one of your flights he will determine that the pilot had flown aircraft for more than two decades with fraudulent papers.

The investigation of the incident occurred in the flight SA206 from Johannesburg International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, in November, he discovered that Chandler had made false statements to the airline, stating that he was qualified to hold a position and that he had an ATPL, while in fact he was not Had only a commercial pilot license.SAA spokeswoman Tlali Tlali said in a statement on Friday.

"The SAA requires that all pilots obtain an ATPL license within five years of their employment as pilots in the SAA."Tlali said." This is related to the status of senior officer and is part of their terms of employment as governed by the SAA pilot regulatory agreement. Any driver who does not obtain this permit will be dismissed from his job in the airline. "

The spokesman for SAA gave little detail about the incident that sparked the Chandler investigation, although he said that irregular maneuvers took place in the Swiss airspace. "He made strange turns with the plane that no one understood, not even the cabin crew," said one of the SAA employees.

The investigation also revealed that Chandler had previously refused to be promoted to the post of commander, which would have required him to re-submit his certifications, they said different sources to Mail & Guardian. His decision at that time should have sounded the alarm: the pilots who joined SAA with Chandler in January 1994 became commanders in 2005, while he remained co-pilot.

Prior to 1994, Chandler worked at SAA as an Aeronautical Engineer.