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CRIME

Fake pilot sat in cockpit on commercial flight

A man who disguised himself as a pilot and sat in the cockpit of a commercial flight from Germany to Italy had a stash of fake uniforms and identity cards in his garage – just like the film “Catch Me If You Can”.

Published: 24 September 2012 08:23 CEST
Fake pilot sat in cockpit on commercial flight
Leonardo DiCaprio in the film "Catch Me If You Can". Photo: DPA

Perhaps copying Leonardo DiCaprio in the Hollywood film about a notorious fraudster, the unemployed 32-year-old man dressed to impress – and convince – and got himself a seat in the cockpit of an Air Dolomiti flight from Munich to Turin in April, daily paper Die Welt reported.

The two real pilots on flight apparently failed to notice the Italian was an imposter, but Lufthansa, which owns Air Dolomiti, stressed that he had not flown the plane but had just sat in the cockpit during the flight.

Lufthansa spokesman Christoph Meier told Die Welt that there was no way that anyone, not even a pilot, could board a Lufthansa flight without a ticket – meaning that the man may well have had a seat booked in the cabin.

It has taken since April for Italian police to track him down – and they said when they arrested him at Turin airport on Wednesday he led them to a garage full of pilot-style shirts and trousers as well as a handful of fake identity cards.

He will now face charges of compromising air traffic and abuse of official titles. On his Facebook page, the man boasted of having been promoted to pilot by Lufthansa, despite being very young for such a position.

The Local/jcw

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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