The Swedish pilot who used falsified documents to fly commercial passenger planes has been fined and banned from the skies for 12 months, but after that he may once again work as a pilot.

On 2 March this year, Thomas Salme (41) was arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. At the time, he was seated in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 and was just minutes from take-off. There were 101 passengers  onboard the plane, but little did they know that Mr Salme was not technically qualified to fly the aircraft. He did have an expired Commercial Pilot Licence, but even if that had been valid it would have qualified him to fly smaller airplanes only, and not a 737.  Mr Salme had falsified an Airline Transport Pilot Licence to convince authorities he was trained to pilot larger aircraft.

On Tuesday a police magistrate in the Dutch city of Haarlem sentenced Thomas Salme to pay a fine of 2,000 euros and banned him from flying for 12 months. The public prosecutor's office had asked for him to be fined an additional 13,000 euros and spend 90 days behind bars.

Mr Salme, who lives in Milan, did not appear in court. His attorney said the defendant did not come to the Netherlands because he wants to avoid more attention from the media. Mr Salme claims he did not have the money to acquire the proper credentials and had already taken a job as a commercial pilot when he realized he was unqualified for the post.

In the 13 years the Swedish pilot flew with false credentials, he caused no accidents. His attorney says that despite the temporary nature of the flight ban, his client does not intend to work as a pilot again.

original photo (c) Dave Heuts on Flickr, used under CC licence