Police say a pilot suspected of flying with a forged license for more than a decade was arrested in the Netherlands shortly before he was due to depart on a flight with 101 passengers.
National police said Wednesday that the man, a 41-year-old Swede who lives in Milan, was arrested in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 scheduled to fly from Amsterdam to Ankara, Turkey.
Lawyer Benno Friedberg of Turkish airline Corendon said the company had cooperated with police and had a reserve pilot prepared to take over the flight.
A police statement said the man had once had a commercial pilot license, but it had expired and it never qualified him for passenger flights.
According to the statement, the pilot said he was relieved that his misdeeds had come to light, and he pulled off his stripes at the time of his arrest.