TheFly

I wonder if the Feds will go after the pilots and yank their tickets.

Inspector Gave Unauthorized Check Rides

Teterboro-based aviation safety inspector Harrington Bishop, 63, entered a guilty plea in a federal court Thursday on charges of receiving illegal gratuities in exchange for what court documents allege were hundreds of unauthorized pilot check rides. Bishop had been assigned to the Teterboro FSDO. On available days off, weekends, and holidays, from May 2004 to February 2011, he allegedly took pilots on check rides at Cave Flight School at Flying W Airport in Medford, NJ. Pilots who flew with him on those occasions ultimately numbered in the hundreds. None of the flights were authorized, each one illegally paid Bishop, and in almost every case a certificate was granted to the tested pilot.*

Pilots were allegedly tested for anything from private to airline transport pilot certificates.*Bishop allegedly collected tips that amounted to $300 per flight on average from the hundreds of pilots he managed to fly with over seven years. This, in spite of the fact that while acting in an official capacity, Bishop was not allowed to accept payment from pilots in exchange for his services. By Bishop's own account, he passed almost every pilot who flew with him on those occasions. Each pilot then became officially certificated by the FAA as a result of Bishop's work. The official charge against Bishop was one count of receiving illegal gratuities while acting as a public official. He now faces a maximum potential fine of $250,000 and up to two years in jail.*

rickair7777

Yes, they certainly can require that all those pilots retake their rides.

In similar cases in the past where the qualifications of the examiner or the conduct of the ride came into question they have done so, and they probably should.

IIRC in the past they did not revoke certificates, they just sent you a letter and gave you X amount of time to take the checkride in question. I guess they give you 30-90 days.

If you had done both a PPL and comm, the commercial would be all that was required I think.

The students probably just assumed the guy was a DPE or didn't realize feds can't get paid, I doubt any of them actually knew they were bribing him. But if they did, they will get all their tickets pulled and be talking to the FBI.

Cubdriver

This kind of thing is a real nuisance to the honest people who believed in the system, paid their fees believing it was correct, prepared thoroughly for their exams thinking it was valid and were actually very good pilots. I hope the guy gets some jail time for wasting those peoples' time and money.

NoyGonnaDoIt

I did a little research on the case. The only charge was accepting gratuities. Bishop pleaded guilty to a 1-count "information." An "information" is a Federal criminal charging document. The difference between an "information" and an "indictment" is that an indictment is issued by a Grand Jury; an information by the US Attorney. It's generally used when there has already been a plea agreement reached.

For those interested, I posted a pdf that contains the plea agreement, the information and the minutes of Bishop's guilty plea.
http://tinyurl.com/6c8y22w

cub, I am sure a number of innocent pilots got caught in the net but I'm wondering whether the case may go further. An FAA Inspector receiving money for performing an official duty is a pretty obvious illegal act and some pilots and CFIs may have known that but used him in order to avoid the risk of failing.