FAA Forces Him To Learn the Hard Way

The FAA recently caught Olukayode Aduragbenro Ojo lying on his First Class Medical application. He now faces up to 5 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. 

Ojo is a 36-year-old FAA-certified Commercial Airline pilot. In February of 2023, Ojo pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor theft charges after he was caught stealing passenger luggage from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport baggage carousels. Then, a month later, he submitted an application for a First Class Medical Certificate. He repeated this in March 2024.

In both of these applications, he chose to leave out his criminal history. Unfortunately for him, the FAA wasn’t going to let it slide.

A federal grand jury returned a two-count superseding indictment against Ojo in June. They reconvened on August 16, 2024, and found him guilty on both counts of making a false statement to the FAA.

U.S. District Judge Jodi Dishman ordered officers to detain Ojo pending sentencing. He could now be forced to pay fines up to a quarter million on each count. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jackson Eldridge and Matt Dillon.

Ojo’s conviction sends a clear message on the FAA’s boundaries. Since he was applying for a First Class Medical, which is needed to pilot commercial passenger aircraft, Ojo was compromising industry safety standards. This is not an uncommon fib, with the FAA putting almost 5,000 pilots under investigation last year. While most of these cases were related to omitted medical conditions, they still prove that falsified applications are likely to be called out.

“When a person provides falsified information or omits material information from records,” the FAA stated, “that person creates a threat to aviation safety by inhibiting the ability of the FAA and other stakeholders to make critical safety-related decisions.”

FMI: www.faa.gov