SCARY: Man impersonating pilot reached plane's cockpit at Philly airport, police say

So much for spending billions on security and personnel. IMO it was probably a random check of the airport security by some agency. The individual was a French National.

Philadelphia police have arrested a French national after he allegedly posed as an airline pilot and gained access to the cockpit on a US Airways flight Wednesday.

MyFoxPhilly.com reports that 61-year-old Philippe Jernnard is accused of impersonating a pilot while boarding the Florida-bound flight at Philadelphia International Airport.

After being a denied a seat in business class Jernnard allegedly boarded the plane and told the flight crew he was a pilot with Air France, according to the report.

"He had an Air France shirt. He had an Air France bag. He had some identification that looked like he was a crew member from Air France," Philadelphia police Capt. Michael Murphy told the station.

Jernnard reportedly ended up in the cockpit jumpseat behind the captain but was escorted off the plane after when he failed to produce proper credentials, police told the station.

SOURCE

reply to post by hp1229


Pretty interesting. I wonder if he thought could get some cheap transport ala "catch me if you can". A story made into a movie starring leonardo dicaprio and tom hanks. Im glad they caught him.

As i understand it's common for a non crew member pilot to use these jump seats as transport to make it to another flight they are called in on. It might not have been a shock at first seeing this guy, but i bet these pilots started sweating when they noticed discrepencies in the manifest.