Pilot's `Cut And Paste' Resume Uncovered After Deadly Crash

It was 18 minutes after midnight when the pilot, who was an expert at padding his experience to get a better job, began his last flight.

The DC-9's jet engines blasted as it took off. Twenty-nine seconds later, the pilot called out, "Positive rate," indicating liftoff. Then someone in the cockpit screamed: "Watch Out! Watch out!"

Investigators determined that icy wings caused the cargo plane to crash in a fireball on the runway last year, killing both crew members. The investigators said the captain had neglected to inspect the craft for ice before takeoff.

And they noted a startling discovery at the California home of the captain, David Reay. Some of Reay's experience was obtained with white correction fluid, a pen and scissors.

"A routine search of Captain Reay's personal effects disclosed a voluminous collection of various aviation records approximately one inch thick," investigators said in their report.

"The documents contained many obvious alterations and modifications using `whiteout' and `cut and paste' techniques."

Reay had altered records from 11 companies to show that he had served as captain on flights for which he actually had been first officer. He added maneuvers and duties to his experience that he hadn't performed. He switched company letterheads on training forms and replaced other crew members' names with his own.

Reay's boss, Ronald Ryan, president of Ryan International Airlines, and others say pilots often embellish their experience.

"We catch them doing it all the time," Ryan says. He says he fires such pilots in serious cases.

John Kjekstad, a pilot from New York, says "Parker Pen-time" - pilot slang for padding experience - is a frequent topic of cockpit conversation. "It's something you hear a lot about . . . But usually they get caught when they go to get a job. You know, you say you have 5,000 hours, but they can see you fly like you have 500."