Fake pilot arrested in 'Catch Me If You Can' ruse

  FRANCES D'EMILIOROME -- Italian police describe it as a real-life sequel to "Catch Me If You Can," the hit movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the true story about an ingenious con artist masquerading as a commercial airline pilot.

An unemployed 32-year-old Italian man was stopped at Turin's Caselle airport on suspicion he successfully used false IDs, a cap and uniform to convince a crew he was a pilot and let him fly for free inside the cockpit aboard a commercial flight from Munich, Germany, to Turin, Carabinieri paramilitary police said Saturday.

Police said two real pilots flew the Air Dolomiti plane on the flight in April. The man, who wasn't identified, didn't touch the controls while in the cockpit. Police caught up with the man at the Turin airport terminal Wednesday after tailing him for months and receiving a tip. On his Facebook profile, the man also falsely bragged he was a commercial pilot and claimed he was promoted to captain's rank while still young.

A police statement said the suspect was cited for suspicion of putting at risk the security of air transport and "usurping a title," and was allowed to stay free on his own recognizance while the investigation continues.

"On at least one occasion in 2012, pretending to be a pilot of a foreign commercial airline, and with a fake name, he succeeded in flying as the third pilot in the cockpit," the statement said.

When police caught up with him, the suspect was dressed in a pilot's uniform, but without any company logo on it, and was sipping coffee at a bar near the check-in area in the terminal and hadn't passed through security. A police spokesman, who declined to be identified, said it didn't appear that the man was planning on using the same ruse that day and that it wasn't known if he had pulled off the trick on any other flights.

Air Dolomiti is part of the German airline Lufthansa.

"We know the case," Lufthansa spokesman Christoph Meier said. He declined to give any details, but insisted that nobody, not even a staff pilot, would be able to fly aboard one of the carrier's planes without having a ticket, indicating that the Italian might have had a passenger ticket.

Italian police said the suspect, after they confronted him, led them to a garage, where officers found piles of neatly pressed white shirts with epaulets, black trousers and jackets, similar to pilots' uniforms, and fake IDs, which were seized by authorities.

In the 2002 movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, DiCaprio portrays a real-life character, a young man who successfully forges millions of dollars' worth of checks through various guises, including as a pilot for now defunct Pan American Airways. So skilled was he that he won the grudging admiration of the FBI which chased after him, and eventually the U.S. agency sought his help in nabbing other check forgers.

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AP reporter Juergen Baetz contributed from Berlin.

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Widow of hijacked flight pilot died accidentally

  Eyewitness NewsDENVER -- The widow of a man who piloted one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 died accidentally, a Colorado coroner said Friday.

Sandy Dahl, 52, died on May 25 in Lakewood of acute heart failure due to the combined effects of alcohol and multiple prescription drugs, Jefferson County chief deputy coroner Carl Blesch said.

He said a heart condition - right ventricular dysplasia - was a contributing cause in her death.

The autopsy report states that anti-depression, anti-anxiety, painkiller and tranquilizer drugs were found in her blood stream.

Her husband, Capt. Jason Dahl, of Ken Caryl Ranch was the captain of United Flight 93 as it traveled from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco and went down in Pennsylvania as passengers fought back against terrorist hijackers. It's believed the four terrorists likely wanted to crash the Boeing 757-222 into the White House or Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Sandy Dahl founded a scholarship fund in her husband's honor to provide money for young pilots to receive their education. She also spoke publicly to ensure the heroism of those aboard Flight 93 isn't forgotten.

Patrick White, president of The Families of Flight 93, has said Sandy Dahl was dedicated to completing the Flight 93 National Memorial as a way to honor the heroic actions of her husband along with those of his crew and passengers.

Last year, she told The Denver Post (bit.ly/nDX7Au) that her public role meant that the events of 9/11 were never far from her mind. She sometimes woke up with nightmares and had been told by counselors that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.

"Normally, people have a memorial, and it's behind them then. This is never going away," she told the newspaper before the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

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Texas pilot killed in horrific Iowa air show crash

  NOMAAN MERCHANTDALLAS -- Glenn Smith left a lucrative job at a Dallas-area technology firm for an early retirement of restoring Soviet fighter jets and flying to exhibitions across the country.

He died Saturday when his nearly 30-year-old training plane nosedived during an air show in eastern Iowa and crashed into a field, authorities said. Spectators watched the 59-year-old Smith's plane erupt into flames, followed by a cloud of gray smoke. Nobody on the ground was hurt.

Smith had been flying in formation with other members of the HopperFlight team at the Quad-City Air Show in Davenport.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. Senior air safety investigator Aaron Sauer said Sunday that a preliminary report on the crash is expected within a week, but a final report will likely take several months.

He said inspectors would examine the few remaining pieces of the plane, as well as Smith's autopsy and toxicology reports.

Smith did not make a mayday call or suggest any sign of distress before the crash, according to Sauer and Randy Ball, a good friend of Smith's.

Ball said Smith was a meticulous flier who would map every step of a flight plan beforehand.

"They practiced the day before and everything went fine," Ball said.

Smith was a longtime technology entrepreneur whose company was acquired by Tyler Technologies, a Dallas-based company that develops software for local schools and government clients, in 1998. He remained an executive at Tyler until 2006, the company said in a statement.

After retirement, Smith focused on collecting and flying vintage planes. He kept two rare Soviet MiG-17 fighter jets at the Historic Aviation Memorial Museum in Tyler, about 90 miles east of Dallas, museum president Carolyn Verver said.

Ball, who also owns a MiG-17, said he spent countless hours working on planes with Smith. Smith loved to preserve planes so others could see and appreciate them, Ball said.

"Those guys are literally using their own money to save a part of history and share that history with everybody else," he said.

Smith was also the newest member of the "Hoppers," according to the team's website. The Hoppers are a group of pilots who privately maintain and fly L-39 fighter jets at air shows and other exhibitions. The L-39 Smith flew Saturday was made by a company in the former Czechoslovakia in 1984, according to a Federal Aviation Administration registry.

"He kept it absolutely immaculate," Ball said.

Part of the Hoppers' mission is to introduce American audiences to planes produced and used by the country's former enemies, according to the website.

"It is important for people to remember and for young kids to learn, so that history does not repeat itself," the website said.

According to the HopperFlight site, Smith had been a pilot for a quarter-century and has a commercial pilot's license with an additional instrument rating certification. Details about Smith's flight history from the FAA were not immediately available Sunday.

A squadron of planes flew over the crash site Sunday in the "missing man" formation before the air show continued.

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Associated Press writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.

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Pilot killed during accident at Poland air show

  Eyewitness NewsWARSAW, Poland -- A small plane lost control and plunged into a river Saturday as it performed stunts at an air show in Poland. The pilot, the only person on board, was killed.

The accident occurred in Plock, in central Poland, as people gathered by the Vistula River for a picnic and the air show.

The news station TVN24 broadcast images of the small plane doing aerobatics when it began spewing out plumes of dark smoke and then plunged into the water.

Rescue workers pulled the pilot from the wreckage and tried to resuscitate him before sending him to a hospital. Several hours later, a hospital official said the pilot, Marek Szufa, died.

The pilot was alone in the plane, a Christen Eagle II, a popular single-engine aircraft used for aerobatic flying. TVN24 identified Szufa as a pilot for the Polish airline LOT and the runner-up in a Poland-wide aerobatics championship.

The director of the Air Club of Mazovia that organized the show, Slawomir Adamkowski, said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

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