Investigations

On September 22, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York sentenced Nelson Gomez to 1 year of probation and a $100 special court assessment. The sentence follows the former pilot’s January 2019 guilty plea to providing flight instruction without a certified flight instructor (CFI) certificate, which Gomez had voluntarily surrendered after a February 2016 aircraft accident. Although no longer authorized to do so, Gomez later provided flight instruction in return for compensation and falsified flight logbooks for student pilots on approximately 30 flights, using a bogus CFI certificate expiration date and omitting required information.

 

DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with significant assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Flight Standards District Office.