Repeat Alaskan Offender Guilty Of Acting as Airman Without a Pilot's Certificate and Aircraft Registration Fraud

Just what aviation needed, yet another black eye... this time from a repeat offender (see the attached wanted poster for previous crimes charged over a decade ago) who's had no end of trouble with the feds over the last decade-plus. 

On June 6, 2024, Michael Anthony Roberts pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska to charges of acting as an airman without a pilot's certificate and aircraft registration fraud. 

The investigation revealed that, in February 2022, Roberts piloted a U.S. registered aircraft without an airman’s certificate at an airport in Wasilla, Alaska, and crashed the plane during takeoff. Roberts also displayed on the plane a false or misleading mark regarding the aircraft’s registration. Such display constitutes aircraft registration fraud.

According to court documents, Michael Anthony Roberts, 61, falsely served as an airman without an airman’s certificate when he piloted Piper PA-18 registered as N99640, at Wolf Lake Airport, Wasilla, Alaska on February 27, 2022. The aircraft crashed on takeoff. The indictment also charges that Roberts displayed a false or misleading mark on the Piper PA-18 about the registration of the aircraft.    

The defendant had his initial court appearance on May 9, 2023, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew M. Scoble of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, where he was ordered to be detained pending trial. He plead guilty just over a year later. DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with the Alaska Wildlife Troopers and with substantial assistance from FAA. Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Brickey prosecuted the case.

FMI: https://www.justice.gov/