Summary

On April 18, Stephen Lawrence Gatlin, a former flight procedures instructor for Delta Air Lines (Delta) pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, GA to two felony counts of falsifying FAA Temporary Airman Certificates (TACs). Gatlin presented Delta with two fraudulent FAA TACs. The first, certifying him as a ground instructor and the other, certifying him as a commercial airline pilot, in order to gain and maintain employment as a flight procedures instructor. He held that position with Delta for several months before a FAA certification review disclosed the falsifications, and Gatlin resigned in September 2004. Our investigation also found that Gatlin used the social security number of another individual on one of the TACs. This was a joint investigation with the Social Security Administration's OIG, with assistance from the FAA's Southern Region.