Becoming a pilot with an arrest....

S

SeanA

New Member
just wondering...I had an incident back in february....

my friends and I were filming a movie for school, I had a fake cap gun, and was pointing it towards a sign for a scene. Some random guy driving by thought I was pointing a real gun at him...yes sounds dumb but he called the police and my friends and I got arrested they charged me with assault with dangerous weapon... I went to court and the judge basically laughed and reduced it to just assault..and then he dismissed it and I had to do some community service... I do not have a criminal record, but the incident is still on my regular record...

Now to the question.... Just wondering if this would prevent me from becoming an airline pilot...what would happen during an interview?

Thanks in advance!

Sean....
 
will it prevent you no i doubt it. but it may hurt you from time to time. the one big word of advice that i can give you is that if you do go to an interview and ask about any problems with the law tell them flat out and explain the situation. if you do not and they find out you will more than likely be SOL. even though it was dismissed it can still be found on a thorough background check. better to tell and explain then explain why you "lied" to them
 
Are you over 18 years of age. If you are, your chances of being an airline pilot are greatly reduced. The airlines have a large pool of applicants to choose from who have a college degree, experience, and spotless criminal and driving records. Now if you are a minor, that is you are younger than 18, this record will be less likely to harm you.
 
thanks for the responses!!..


yup thats pretty much the story, arrested for a cap gun. it is pretty much a joke. Yea if they did ask I would definetly explain the whole thing...no use to lie to them just hurts me in the future...

at the time of the incident I was 18....

I am asking this question because I am going to get my associates degree and flight training in january...

I was just wondering if it would be a complete waste if I was to do it all then not be able to get hired...

Also what would your thoughts be...

Option #1: I live in MA, they have a community college up here (north shore community college) Where I can get my associates in aviation and all my ratings... total cost would be about $35,000 for everything then I would probally instruct and do the riddle extended campus deal online...

Option #2 Move to florida (already sounds nicer then MA) go to broward community college, get the training from delta connection academy, get all the ratings/degree, then instruct there (guranteed) and work on the riddle extended campus deal down there..then get that guranteed job interview... total would be about $50,000 with the apartment...

any suggestions on that?
 
If it wasn't a felony you shouldn't have a problem. I think on all the applications I've filled out it asks about felonies. I had a driver's license suspended (6 years ago), 4 accidents, and 3 tickets (2 within a year), and was still hired at a 135 company and 121 airline with no questions asked.

$50k for Delta Connection & college? I know of a very smart and motivated pilot who spent $20,000 on just his CFI, CFI-I, & MEI. Hmm. I think I spent about 12k, and even that was expensive and through ERAU (except for MEI).

I think most people come out of DCA with around $80k in loans for just the flight training.

And their "connection" will soon be Mesa Connection Academy or Skywest Connection Academy when it gets spun off and sold (you heard it here first folks...).

~wheelsup
 
bob loblaw said:
Are you over 18 years of age. If you are, your chances of being an airline pilot are greatly reduced. The airlines have a large pool of applicants to choose from who have a college degree, experience, and spotless criminal and driving records.
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He still has a spotless criminal record, dude; he said the charge was dismissed.
 
Didn't like the answers you got in this thread?

Maybe if you post it again, you might get the answer you want to hear... Then again, probably not...
 
SeanA said:
and then he dismissed it and I had to do some community service...
Click to expand...

Help me to understand. If the charge was dismissed, then why did you get community service? Dismissed means no charges were brought, and nothing is on ANY record. Either something wasn't dismissed and details are missing, or you need to get a lawyer and get that fixed.

G
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
Help me to understand. If the charge was dismissed, then why did you get community service? Dismissed means no charges were brought, and nothing is on ANY record. Either something wasn't dismissed and details are missing, or you need to get a lawyer and get that fixed.

G
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I've heard of arrests for a fake gun, most likely the felony charge got dismissed and it was dropped to a misdemeanor. That's where the community service came in. Basically, it's like the equivalent of a speeding ticket.
 
As a former police officer, I call BS. If you interviewed with me and told me what you posted (SeanA), I wouldn't believe you. Not that the incident even sounds like that big of deal, it's the explanation I don't buy.

District Attorney's don't file cases they don't think they can win and judges don't laugh in court if they don't dismiss the charges, which he/she didn't.

There's certainly more to the story. Assault is a misdemeanor offense and if the police weren't there to witness the crime, the "guy driving by" had to have made a private persons arrest after the police arrived. Police officers don't have the authority to arrest citizens for misdemeanor crimes they didn't witness (with some rare exceptions).

If there are any MA police officers or deputies that can shed more light or correct me, by all means, do. It's been a few years, so I'm a little rusty on criminal law and arrest.

To answer your question SeanA, I think if you tell what actually happened (incident and court precedings), you should be able to have a fine career as a professional pilot. Good luck.
 
aloft said:
He still has a spotless criminal record, dude; he said the charge was dismissed.
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I stand by my statement DUDE. The airlines have a large pool of qualified applicants who have spotless records. Why on earth would they consider an applicant who has been arrested for anything ( that is a felony or misdemeanor) when there are thousands who are spotless. Incase you are not convinced the airlines are conservative, get a tattoo anywhere that is visible and peirce your ear. Than sit back and count the rejection letters you receive.
 
I've had five piercings, all in my face. You won't see any holes, though. Know why? I wasn't stupid enough to keep them in long enough to scar my face up.
 
Keep your nose clean from here on, and you should be OK. I know of people who have been arrested before, had a DUI, or had messed up driving records and so forth, and they got hired. Just like a captain once told me: We look at people with whom we'd want to do a four-day trip. With persistence and a good attitude, you'll get hired.
 
fender_jag said:
Keep your nose clean from here on, and you should be OK. I know of people who have been arrested before, had a DUI, or had messed up driving records and so forth, and they got hired. Just like a captain once told me: We look at people with whom we'd want to do a four-day trip. With persistence and a good attitude, you'll get hired.
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Yeah, but an airline pilot is no good on a four day trip if he is on a three day bender... Sorry I couldn't resist. I do agree that you have to keep yourself spotless for a number of years after a slight encounter with the law; the only question is how long? But like I said, don't show up to an interview with visible tattoos and numerous piercings and expect to get hired. To the guy who said he had piercings in his face, yes, you're smart to not have them anymore because you obviously understand what I am talking about. Now I just have to practice what I preach and lose some weight. The airlines don't want a NFL Lineman Look-a-like flying for them. I want to say this nicely because I am not an " Internet Rambo. " Although I don't understand it because a guy my size would be somewhat of a deterent.
 
jonnyb said:
As a former police officer, I call BS. If you interviewed with me and told me what you posted (SeanA), I wouldn't believe you. Not that the incident even sounds like that big of deal, it's the explanation I don't buy.

District Attorney's don't file cases they don't think they can win and judges don't laugh in court if they don't dismiss the charges, which he/she didn't.

There's certainly more to the story. Assault is a misdemeanor offense and if the police weren't there to witness the crime, the "guy driving by" had to have made a private persons arrest after the police arrived. Police officers don't have the authority to arrest citizens for misdemeanor crimes they didn't witness (with some rare exceptions).

If there are any MA police officers or deputies that can shed more light or correct me, by all means, do. It's been a few years, so I'm a little rusty on criminal law and arrest.

To answer your question SeanA, I think if you tell what actually happened (incident and court precedings), you should be able to have a fine career as a professional pilot. Good luck.
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Telling the WHOLE truth and nothing but would be a good start.

Kinda like one of my patients I had to pick up the other day. Had a full avulsion of her chin from the throat out and tried to tell me she had no idea wha thappened................

Man just tell it like it is........makes life easier

Ummmm.....in the first post you say an undercover cop pulled you over........now you say "some guy" saw you and called the cops.
filming a school project and we had this little cap gun and pointed it at some random sign and a truck drove by, saw us pointing it, he was an undercover cop, and we got arrested, for assault with a dangerous weapon, it was then reduced to assault and then the case was dismissed...
Click to expand...

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........after reading the past posts........do I smell a "tomcatter"??????? man this BS really stinks :banghead:
 
A good opportunity to preach about conducting a full background check on yourself prior to applying for a flying job.

If you've got an arrest on your record with a firearm/weapon being any part of it, chances are you're not going to have the opportunity to even explain the circumstances because you might be deemed as a gamble to human resources -- who only more or less look at numbers, figures and risk assessment.

Any other job in aviation it may or may not be a problem, but when you're in an industry where you've got 10,000 pilots applying for 30 jobs, it's much more of a numbers game and they look for things to filter those applications down to the best of the bunch.
 
bob loblaw said:
The airlines have a large pool of qualified applicants who have spotless records. Why on earth would they consider an applicant who has been arrested for anything ( that is a felony or misdemeanor) when there are thousands who are spotless.
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Because screening out job applicants based solely on arrests, without regard to underlying guilt, is illegal in many states and HIGHLY problematic under the federal discrimination laws. Some employers may consider arrests anyway, but most sophisticated employers will look only at convictions, not arrests.

On the other hand, determining whether an arrest resulted in a "conviction" is more art than science. For example, it is not uncommon for a charge to be dismissed upon completion of some punishment, restitution or other program. The TSA's guidelines for criminal history background checks suggest that a "dismissed" charge can nevertheless be considered a "conviction" for the CHRC screen if the dismissal was conditioned on an admission of guilt and/or punishment.

The best bet in dealing with any arrest is to be fully open and honest with the prospective employer about what happened. Don't be cute or try to minimize the incident. Make sure you understand for yourself what happened in the legal case, so that you can properly explain to the employer. Ask your lawyer how you should explain it to employers and also pull a criminal history on yourself to see how it will be reported.

And don't think for a minute that the arrest won't turn up. If you are applying with an airline, the airline is required to take your fingerprints and submit them to the FBI for a fingerprint-based criminal history check, which almost certainly will turn up any arrest. In addition, the employer probably will conduct it's own background check with a private background check company. If you failed to report the arrest or conviction (and the employer asked for that information), then you've got honesty issues working against you as well.

MF
 
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