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Pilot Jailed For Flying Aircraft Without Proper
Licensing And Lying To The FAA |
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April 1, 2015, - Paul Douglas Tharp was
sentenced in U.S. District Court, Charlotte, North
Carolina, to 60 days
incarceration, three years of probation, and
ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, for serving as an
airman without an airman's certificate and
providing false statements to a Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) investigator.
Tharp was also ordered to sell his airplane and
not enter an airport, unless to fly commercially
as a passenger, for three years.
The investigation determined that while Tharp
held a pilot certificate with a single engine
rating, he falsely represented himself as a
pilot with a multi-engine rating and as a
mechanic who held an FAA mechanic certificate
with an Airframe and/or Powerplant (A&P) rating.
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In or around 2011, Tharp was hired by Warriors
and Warbirds, a group based in Monroe, NC,
to work as a mechanic to repair and refurbish a
multi-engine C-46 airplane. To earn fees from
the group as a mechanic and pilot, Tharp told a
representative that he was an A&P mechanic.
Tharp also acted as the second in command pilot
on a March 4, 2011, flight from Midland, Texas, to Monroe, North
Carolina. Because the
C-46F is a multi-engine airplane with a required
crew of two, Tharp, who held a single engine
pilot certificate, lacked the proper
authorization to fly this airplane.
On June 5, 2011, Tharp represented to an FAA
inspector that he was an A&P mechanic in order
to obtain a ferry permit for the C-46F and
provided the inspector with an A&P certificate
number belonging to someone else. Tharp again
acted as second in command of the multi-engine
C-46F on the June 5, 2011 trip even though he
should not have been flying this aircraft. |
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