Air Canada captain piloted more than 900 flights without proper licence: police

A former Air Canada pilot has been charged in a "complex" fraud and forgery investigation, police said Tuesday, accusing him of using a bogus licence to captain hundreds of flights during a lengthy career based out of Canada's busiest airport. 

Police allege 59-year-old Geoffrey Wall was promoted to captain without the proper licence in 2009 and flew more than 900 flights, including on some of the airline's largest jets, until his retirement in 2025. 

The alleged fraud appeared to go undetected until a routine evaluation at Toronto's Pearson International Airport in March 2025 turned up "anomalies" in his documentation, police said. 

"This is similar to a doctor that is licensed to practise family medicine but is doing brain surgery in their office," said Nick Milinovich, deputy chief of Peel Region police. 

Wall started at Air Canada in 1998 and flew as a first officer until his promotion to captain in 2009. The Barrie, Ont., native is also a former top executive of the Air Canada pilot's union, serving as chair of the master executive council. 

He was based out of Pearson airport and captained the Boeing 767, 777 and 787 planes, police said. 

He had a commercial pilot's licence but not the highest certification required to fly as a captain, police said. He allegedly used fraudulent documents to misrepresent his qualifications to both the airline and the aviation regulator. 

When he was found out, police allege he falsely reported his documents as stolen. 

The criminal investigation was launched in January of this year after a separate regulatory review by Transport Canada. 

In a statement, Air Canada said that as soon as it learned of the issue, the pilot was removed from duty and voluntarily reported the matter to Transport Canada. 

The airline said safety was "not compromised by this incident," noting pilots undergo mandatory recurrent training every six months to validate their flying skills. Their training also includes a flight check with a Transport Canada pilot every year. 

"However, appropriate licensing is an essential layer of the airline industry’s multi-layered approach to safety, so Air Canada takes this matter with utmost seriousness," the company said in a statement. 

An audit of the airline's pilots found no other instances of non-compliance, the company said. 

Transport Minister Steve MacKinnon said the federal government would review the case and make sure improvements, "if there are any," would be made. Despite the lengthy alleged fraud, he said the system to detect such issues had worked. 

"I am gratified that we were able to detect this issue and get it dealt with," he told reporters on Parliament Hill. 

The pilots' union declined to comment on Wall's specific case. 

"We take all regulatory and licensing requirements seriously and work to maintain the highest standards of safety and professionalism across our industry," the Air Line Pilots Association said in a statement.

After retiring from Air Canada, Wall took a job at Georgian College where he helped students with military connections transition to college life, according to a write-up dated November 2025 and posted on the college's website. 

Georgian College said in a statement it's aware of the charges against a "part-time employee," but will not comment on the arrest or the accused's current employment status.

The write-up attributed to Wall suggests he flew out of the Barrie Flying Club as a teenager and joined the military out of high school. The page says he served as a helicopter pilot out of Moose Jaw and later Halifax before joining Air Canada. 

"I've always believed in helping people navigate systems that can feel overwhelming, and in many ways that work was about connection and trust," read the post. 

A request for comment sent to Wall's college-affiliated email address was not immediately returned. 

Aviation management expert John Gradek said he was shocked to learn about the charges.

"It's something that I never thought I'd see ... I thought that we would have a foolproof system," said Gradek, a faculty lecturer at McGill University and a former Air Canada executive.

Even though the audit of Air Canada pilots did not find any other instances of non-compliance, Gradek said he thinks the accreditation and document verification processes must be tightened. 

The incident undermines Canadians' trust in the regulatory system, he said.

"I hope it's an anomaly, but it does raise questions," Gradek said. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2026.

–With files from David Baxter in Ottawa and Elissa Mendes in Toronto

By Jordan Omstead | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.