LONDON – Craig Butfoy has been jailed for lying about his flying experience on his CV to acquire a job in BA CityFlyer as well as Stobart Air.

He was working for the airlines between April 2016 and March 2018 but entered false details and altered entries in his logbook so that he could look more experienced.

He pled guilty to four charges of fraud and was sent to prison for 12 months.

Pilot Integrity Maintained?

The General Counsel of the Civil Aviation Authority Jonathan Spence commented on this:

“The Civil Aviation Authority’s prosecution and the sentence imposed show that offenses of this kind are taken very seriously by the Civil Aviation Authority and the courts.

“Pilot integrity is at the heart of aviation safety and we will take all steps necessary to maintain that position.”

If he was working for the airlines, then surely the integrity of safety has been compromised in this respect.

British Airways States Safety is a Priority…

Butfoy had falsely claimed that has flown 1,610 hours as a captain when he applied for a job at BA CityFlyer.

He also stated that he held a private pilot’s license since 1998 as well as fabricating training course certificates.

British Airways have put out a statement regarding Butfoy saying:

“The safety of our customers and crew is always our priority, and the fully-qualified pilot was suspended and an investigation launched as soon as BA CityFlyer became aware of discrepancies in his employment record. At no point was there any risk to customers or colleagues.”

With BA believing that there was no risk to customers or colleagues, they wouldn’t be saying that if an accident happened on Butfoy’s watch. And that is a worrying thing to think about.

A Bad Week for British Airways…

So far, it has been a bad week for British Airways, especially with the reported IT failure at Terminal 5 at London Heathrow yesterday.

With the news from today, it has been a pretty damaging week for British Airways’ reputation.

However, this is something that the airline will recover from, but probably for the wrong reasons.

The airline is used to dealing with bad press, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when it made severe job cuts to remain afloat and profitable.

For the Stobart Air side of things, there is no damage done as the airline collapsed in June last year due to financial trouble caused by the pandemic.

Overall…

It remains clear that checks and balances have to be done on the British Airways side in order to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.

The UK CAA will more than likely have its eyes peeled looking out for some more discrepancies in the near future.

But for BA, it is unclear how much worse this week can get for them, but it is a hope on their side that they can put this week aside and begin to focus on the future.