Date
Former Airline Transport Pilot Sentenced to Prison for Operating an Aircraft Without an Airman’s Certificate
Link
On April 11, 2019, Angelo Efthimiatos was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Burlington, Vermont, to 15 months’ imprisonment, 12 months’ supervised release, and a $100 special assessment fee. This sentence will be served concurrently with an 18-month sentence imposed on Efthimiatos by the Southern District of Iowa for violating terms of his prior Federal supervised release. He has been in custody since April 2018 and will receive credit for time served. On December 6, 2018, a Federal jury convicted him of knowingly and willfully flying an aircraft without an airman’s certificate.
The investigation revealed that just after midnight on April 10, 2018, Efthimiatos piloted a Piper aircraft from Nantucket, Massachusetts, to North Clarendon, Vermont. At the time, he lacked a valid airman’s certificate from FAA, which revoked it on July 1, 2014, after Efthimiatos was convicted in Federal court for using an aircraft to transport 50 kilograms or more of marijuana. The revocation order stated that his airman’s certificate had been permanently revoked and that FAA would reject any future pilot certificate applications he submitted. The order also required him to surrender his airman’s certificate to FAA, which he failed to do.
DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration. FAA provided substantial assistance.