Hi all,

I have submitted my application with SkyWest and had to cop to 3 misdemeanors that occurred 14 and 20 years ago respectively. One 20 years ago was a petty theft and a failure to appear and the other 14 years ago was a harassing phone call (Guy I did some tree work for failed to pay me for contracted work.)

I am a completely different person now after starting my career in aviation
14 years ago and deal with things completely differently. I have been working as a full time CFII for 12 years and am current single pilot 135 on a Cessna 421B with a little B200 on the side. I have been toying around with going to SkyWest for 5 years and always thought that with my record and w/o a 4 year degree I would just be laughed at. I finally bit the bullet through much encouragement from a good friend who is a captain for SkyWest of 7 years in the CRJ. He wrote me a letter of rec and even made some phone calls/emails on my behalf.

I am a Gold Seal CFII with an exceptionally good pass rate and have always put my best effort into this profession. I also have never failed a checkride/FAA check and no violations or accidents either.

I feel that I have allot going for me but these 3 offenses might just trash all of that.

Now I just got the mandatory questions from SkyWest and filled them out and sent them back yesterday. I got all exited untill I had to answer question 2 in which I just cut and pasted my criminal record from my app into that box. I was thinking that they must have seen my full application BEFORE sending me this questionare in which they would have read my violations so this seemed like they were considering me. However, why would they ask the same question twice (Once on the app and once on the questionnaire)?

Or is it possible that this questionnaire is just automatically sent out to the applicant (via a person) after submitting an app via AirlineApps.com w/o looking over my app to start? If so than this would be the first time they saw my criminal history via this questionnaire and perhaps is now a deal breaker for them.

Thanks allot

I have nothing helpful to say except the ads on this page are very funny.

You're not sunk, just be honest (I can't overstate the honesty part) and factual. If you've stayed out of trouble for over a decade now, and have a good track record both in aviation and in your personal life since then, you have a chance. I got a call a couple weeks after submitting that questionnaire.

Best of luck, hopefully we'll see you out on the line in a few short months. Let me know if I can help at all.

Canada has some limitations on who they'll allow into their country if they have a criminal record. I'm not sure what they are, but this plays a big part in the hiring process. They don't want to hire someone that can't fly into Canada.

If you can get an interview, I think you'll be OK if you can explain it happened a long time ago and you've been good all of these years.

You've made some mistakes in the past; who hasn't. As long as you're honest on your app I don't think you should have any problems. One thing I would suggest though is to get some face time with a pilot recruiter at a job fair. Having direct communication with a company representative would help you immensely in a situation like this, I think.

It's not the end of the world, people make mistake, and change. Be honest if they ask.

Fortunately my offenses are not on the International (Canada) list. Those are all hardcore offenses. The ones I committed may be construed as affecting my character though.

I am all about the honest approach. No sense in leaving all I have built up at my local airport only to be sent home halfway through ground school! SkyWest is really the only regional I wish to work for right now. I think things are really looking good for the company right now and it seems that everyone there will be great people to work with.

Thanks for the support.

It's my understanding that you can get stuff like that expunged. Have you tried that route? That would save a lot of headaches for you.

Skywest will probably give you an interview, and they'll decide whether or not to hire you based on how you explain those misdemeanors in the interview. They're an extremely fair airline in terms of giving people second chances or at least letting them explain themselves.

Tell the truth and let them know how you've learned from the experience and you'll probably be fine considering how long ago the offenses were.

What he said.

One one hand SKW is not lenient on who they hire, and probably have higher overall admission standards than most regionals with respect to the whole person.

But they are very reluctant to disqualify someone based on boxes checked on the App. I suspect you'll get a chance to explain yourself in person.

With regards to Canada entry, only felonies are disqualifying. The reason this is such a big gotcha is that DUI is a felony in Canada so they treat ANY DUI from anywhere as a felony...lots of pilots have those, at least old school guys.

Just make sure your misdemeanors are not felonies in Canada...you need to go to the interview well-armed with facts and documents to show you can fly north.

Hopefully the theft was very minor and you were very young...you would not be the first teenager to shoplift. The phone call thing is probably more significant, the company lawyers (at any large company) might not want the liability associated with employing someone whose background hints they might threaten or harm a customer or employee.