I have a Facebook, but it’s not under my real name. I’m rarely active on it and there’s nothing even remotely controversial on there. I may have made a throwaway social media account years ago that was tied to my email address and posted something stupid that I don’t remember.

There are a few arrests and criminal charges in my background (from 15-20 years ago) that I did not disclose, but also were not asked about. Those charges didn’t lead to convictions as I did community service and they were dismissed. Haven’t had any issues since except a few speeding tickets. Those charges didn’t stop me from getting my medical or airport security badge. In hindsight, probably should’ve mentioned them somewhere in the application so it didn’t look like I was trying to hide them. I think this is probably what made them pull the offer. Running this through ChatGPT, I’m reading that even though these charges may not be publicly listed as disqualifying by the FAA or the airline, the airline may still have an internal HR standard that isn’t made public. If I didn’t meet that standard, then my app automatically gets flagged and they pull the offer. I’ve heard of people with far worse than me getting hired though so I don’t know.

Perhaps a former employer badmouth me, but I doubt it. Perhaps the drug test came back with a false positive, but I doubt that too. Confident all my dates of employment are either correct or very close to correct. I disclosed every traffic violation I could remember.

Nothing in my PRD except the one check ride failure that I disclose to them. I did get a phone number to call by ATC once, and when I talked to the safety inspector from the FSDO, he talked about maybe putting me in a compliance program but we never went through with it. I never got anything in the mail about this or anything. I didn’t disclose this to them either because it didn’t fit any of the questions that they asked.

Unfortunately, they won’t tell me. I’m hoping when I see the background report, something obvious will stand out. I’m going to call one of the application prep companies to go over this with me.

I was really impressed with the organization of thoroughness of the company. I was really excited about joining the team. I respect their decision. Just wish I knew what the deal is.

 

It’s almost certainly the arrests/dropped charges. Those never fully go away, even if expunged. Non-disclosure is considered at least evasive, if not out and out lying. And nowadays almost everything is linked so there’s usually no falling through the cracks.

Sorry you had to learn this the hard way. Worth doing some prep to address in addition to getting a copy of the background check report.

 

They only asked about convictions in the last 10 years and that was what I answered. However, someone else pointed out to me that at the end of these applications there is usually some kind of open ended question like “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?”. I do recall seeing something like that and in hindsight that’s where I should have disclosed. I did not try to hide it, I knew the charges would show up if they went back far enough so no sense in trying to hide them. I didn’t use my judgement appropriately on what to do. I should have been fully forthcoming.

 

Thats interesting. As far as I recall, my apps asked about minor driving convictions in the last 10 years and all other convictions. But shop practice does vary, so I’ll definitely take your word for it.

From what little I’ve gathered - airline HR (like the rest of the industry) can get pretty incestuous, so it’s conceivable there may be something unspoken/unwritten that’s getting enforced that some new player carried over from somewhere.

But that’s pure speculation and prep is certainly warranted if this happens again despite addressing the perceived issue.

 

You know what I think you’re right. It’s been over six months since I filled out the application so I didn’t remember correctly, but yes, I think it asked for convictions that I’ve ever had. The situation remains essentially the same though, I answered no, but I still should’ve disclosed that I had charges.

 

Again two possibilities

1) they thought you lied. If you had come clean earlier, NBD
2) They didn't think you lied, but after seeing the background check said no.

My guess is #2. You said "a few arrests" which I take to mean at least three because you would have said two. That's a big hill to climb. I'm going to guess 95% of their applicants have zero arrests and <1% have 3 or more. Honestly, if I were in HR, I wouldn't touch anybody with 3 arrests even with no convictions.

You should find an interview prep company and figure out a way to package and get ahead of this. If these are all showing on a background check ... you need to disclose up front regardless of how the questions are worded.

 

Once you get a handle on what (or at least what you believe) caused you be rejected, I'd suggest shooting a bit lower than the regionals at this point. Get a 135 turbine job, SE if that's all you can, but preferably ME. You will need to be able to show future prospective employers a growth job on your resume and then be able to explain the history. Best of luck.

 

They don't need to fabricate excuses to rescind CJO's... they can just put you in a pool and then they always have the option of flushing the pool if they don't run classes after a certain amount of time.

No, there was some reason for this, accurate or otherwise.

 

Filing a lawsuit to force discovery also crossed my mind when I read this. I admit I would *really* want to find out what happened if I knew I that I had no legit skeletons. It wouldn't cost that much either.

Mistakes happen, it's a thing and happened to me once but I caught it in time. Pulled my current employer training records before an upcoming interview, lo and behold, there was an odd entry which turned out to be PRIA code for a training bust... that never remotely happened. Could never prove it or know for sure but I suspect there's at least a possibility it was inserted in there to help with their retention of experienced CA's. It was in a recurrent sequence from a number of years in the past; I had previously reviewed the same records and it wasn't there originally.

However, if they did background checks with previous employers they might have talked to someone who didn't say what you expected them to say... think hard about that, any references which you listed but don't trust 100%? Although with PRD, I'm not sure employers really make phone calls any more, would depend on the company and their state law. Also *most* employers will not give *any* reference info than dates of employment and maybe rehire eligibility, too much liability. Although a Mom & Pop like a small flight school might not are about stuff like that.

Potential downside of a lawsuit is that those filings are public records... the fact that it was filed doesn't go away, even if it's dropped or settled. Other future potential employers doing their own background checks might see a lawsuit against an airline that you never reported working for and decide to pass. Employers understandably don't like litigious employees and don't want to care to waste resources attempting to adjudicate such a mess... they'd just rather move on to the easy applications.

I guess I'd try everything else before the lawsuit... might get a lawyer to call them and explain that you sincerely think there was an error in the process. That puts them on notice without leaving a paper trail. Might cause them to review the basis for their decision.

 

It would depend on state law in the employer's jurisdiction. In many cases not only can they not ask past a certain timeframe (3,5,7,10 years) they also cannot discriminate against past convictions if they do find them. Legally anyway. This can vary with every airline you apply to based on their HQ location.

Although if old convictions were more on the serious side, they might just break the law and risk a lawsuit... some airlines in the past have *really* dug in their heels on their red lines for pilot backgrounds.

But that's for *convictions*. There are not many states left where it's legal to discriminate against prior *arrests*... that gets back to the whole presumed innocent thing. Unless the arrests were for serious stuff like violence, SA, theft, drug dealing, etc. Then again they might just dig in their heels.

I would talk to an employment lawyer in that local jurisdiction... probably need to understand what's going on, so you know how to navigate future job apps.