Surprised he got away with this for so long in this day and age of security:

 

Italian police describe it as a real-life sequel to 'Catch Me If You Can', the hit movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the true story about an ingenious con artist masquerading as a commercial airline pilot.

 

More:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/7720861/Suspected-con-man-pilot-caught

Frank Abingale was real to the best of my knowledge, so this is "Catch my if you can, V2.0".... ^_^

I'm partly surprised, though given the amount of frauds I've come across on the internet, I'm not surprised that one took it a step further and faked an ID badge, you can buy pilots uniforms practically anywhere with out any need for ID....

 

Regards,

Ró.

<br />Frank Abingale was real to the best of my knowledge, so this is "Catch my if you can, V2.0".... <br />

 

LOL - I didn't realize that, but I could see how it would have been easier for Frank Abingale back in the 1960's to fake being a pilot to get onto a jump seat.

 

You would think it would be more difficult in today's electronic security era.

Frank Abingale was real to the best of my knowledge

 

He still is real and is doing very fine: http://www.abagnale.com/index2.asp

The guy was a true genius in being able to do what he did for so long,and evade capture!

The guy was a true genius in being able to do what he did for so long,and evade capture!

 

Not only that, but in managing to turn what he did into a career. "Catch me if you can" is one of my favorite movies, even if it is a somewhat fictionalized departure from the life of this man.

 

It's also amazing that in fifty plus years of life, I've never personally run into a con artist. Of course I get the usual Nigerian scam emails all the time, but I've never encountered a con artist in the flesh. I guess for every Frank Abignale there must be tens of thousands of con artists who end up forever in prison, or worse for their crimes.

 

Back to Frank, with the reduced security of the 60's it was probably easy for someone of his intellect to get into the jump seat of an airline cockpit. Although I don't know how he managed to B.S. pilots into thinking he knew anything about flying. There was no Avsim back and no flightsim's to gain familiarity with the industry, and I don't know if he every studied any books on the subject.

 

John

I got to go back and watch that movie again.

 

Cheers