Flood From United States of America, joined Feb 2009, 739 posts, RR: 1 Posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 15622 times:
Great story from the Times Online UK:
"Pretty fly teenager fakes an airline
A TEENAGE boy from Yorkshire succeeded in persuading British aviation executives that he was a tycoon about to launch his own airline. Using the pseudonym Adam Tait, the smooth-talking 17-year-old told airport and airline executives that he had a fleet of jets."
Kevin From Canada, joined Dec 2000, 1117 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 15560 times:
Wow! What a gifted individual! I mean what he did was wrong but still you have to respect the ability and desire. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a job offer from some major company after they read about him.
Spacecadet From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 2863 posts, RR: 16 Reply 3, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 15499 times:
Quoting Kevin (Reply 1): Wow! What a gifted individual!
Not sure I'd go that far. Sounds like he managed to get a couple meetings and a few responses to emails by sounding professional and promising things that he couldn't deliver. Nothing too difficult there. Then when it came time to put up or shut up, he got caught. No surprise there either. The Times made a good story out of it, but reading between the lines, I don't see anything here but a hoaxster that managed to get through the first layer of any of these businesses.
It's not that hard to contact a company claiming you offer some service that can help them grow their business and get a meeting with somebody. That is what these people at these companies are for; to find new business opportunities.
If he had actually signed some deals, then that would have been pretty impressive, and embarrassing for the companies and other people involved. You would expect due diligence to be done, and obviously signing a deal with a company that doesn't really exist would mean none had been. But that didn't happen here.
I'm tired of being a wanna-be league bowler. I wanna be a league bowler!
ThegreatRDU From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 2194 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 15304 times:
mad respect for the kid apparently this kid has problems with this sort of thing and I heard he's autistic...
JetBlue777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2009, 1316 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 15270 times:
Wow!! Very impressive.... He'll get a month of detention! He could be the next Richard Branson....
JetBlue777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2009, 1316 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 15219 times:
Quoting Tugger (Reply 6): What I want to know is what is his A.net screen name?
Prebennorholm From Denmark, joined Mar 2000, 5739 posts, RR: 56 Reply 9, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 15091 times:
Quoting JetBlue777 (Reply 5): He could be the next Richard Branson....
No, not so. Branson is a lot smarter than that. Branson is an ordinary businessman, maybe even brighter than average.
But there are a lot of Adam Tait style people out there. Until a year ago there were thousands of them all over the banking industry.
Adam Tait should have a medal because he is one of the few, carrying his illness, who didn't do any harm to the world around him. Or his illness was at least discovered before he could do any serious harm to society.
Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm
BMI727 From United States of America, joined Feb 2009, 10903 posts, RR: 27 Reply 11, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 14962 times:
I think that JetAmerica just found their new CEO.
Send him over here, Toledo is waiting.
Why do Aerospace Engineering students have to turn things in on time?
Prebennorholm From Denmark, joined Mar 2000, 5739 posts, RR: 56 Reply 12, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 14864 times:
Quoting Seemyseems (Reply 10): I wonder what would've happened if he was never caught out?
Well you always get caught sooner or later. This one very soon.
There are many Adam Taits out there. Hardly any senior salesman haven't met at least one Adam Tait in his career.
When allowed to go far, they can be extremely damaging. Just over a handful of Adam Taits bankrupted a whole country - Iceland - last year. Only with a little assistance from an incompetent government auditing system. In the US thousands of Taits did practically the same thing with slightly less damaging effect, but of course on a much larger scale.
The most famous "Danish Adam Tait" went a lot further than the "real Tait". He recently had to cancel his order for a £5 million sailboat since his personal assets were "rewritten" to £100 million in red ink. With little prospect for recovery near term since he just started a seven years jail sentence. In the US one Adam Tait just got 150 years.
Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm
BMI727 From United States of America, joined Feb 2009, 10903 posts, RR: 27 Reply 13, posted (2 years 6 months 4 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 14836 times:
Quoting Prebennorholm (Reply 12): Well you always get caught sooner or later. This one very soon.
Plainplane From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 786 posts, RR: 2 Reply 16, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 13712 times:
I bet that after this incident, somebody out there may be willing to provide capital so he could really start an airline. This is quite astonishing, maybe he would be a good CEO one day.
Unitedfa07 From United States of America, joined Apr 2009, 109 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 13521 times:
I think its insane how any of you could condone such behavior. Autistic or not such actions can be dangerous and cost companies money. Maybe in his mind he thought he wasn't doing anything wrong, but pretending to be someone you're not is fraud. Any adult would be dealt with differently I'm sure. The way the economy is now who wouldn't want to believe someone. Messing with peoples lives is not a funny issue. Think of the time and resources wasted. Insolent boy, his father should watch him closer knowing what he is capable of. Let the father direct him in the direction he wants to go in, not taking the lead alone. I'm sure most of you won't care for what I have to say, but it's my opinion!
OzarkD9S From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 4432 posts, RR: 28 Reply 18, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 13509 times:
Alangirvan From New Zealand, joined Nov 2000, 2025 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 13125 times:
It does show how much any one can pick up about the airline industry, just by reading everything that is available. You read magazines like Airliner World, and you think I could do that. So, at your armchair you dream you a million business plans, and you have read enough to talk plausibly to people in the industry. The mad part is when you start contacting brokers who have used airlines for sale - you think, gosh that 737 does not look so expensive after all.
Do you keep it as a dream, or do you start making phone calls, and hope that magically your financing will fall into place?
You can do this in any industry. After all it is how Tom Clancy got his start as an author - people could not believe how much he could pick up about Defence subjects just from reading magazines, but the stuff is all out there for any one to read.
It would be frightening if people read Medical Journals and started offering treatments. What this guy did was inconvenience a few people compared with that.
Flood From United States of America, joined Feb 2009, 739 posts, RR: 1 Reply 22, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 12332 times:
Quoting Babybus (Reply 20): I wonder if any of the people he was communicating with could have him for breach of contract.
It doesn't appear it ever got that far, no contracts were signed.
Quoting Rsg85 (Reply 21): but how does he get through a 90 minute face to face meeting without the ceo wondering what was going on
Right, and with a second meeting scheduled due to the "promising" first one. I find that quite amusing. The airport director probably less so
Quoting Unitedfa07 (Reply 17): I think its insane how any of you could condone such behavior.
Finding it amusing doesn't necessarily imply condoning such actions. Sure, it's wrong. It's still funny though. I would love to read a transcript of those meetings.
Quoting Tugger (Reply 6): What I want to know is what is his A.net screen name? Silly
No kidding Wouldn't be the least bit surprised it he had posted here, perhaps even seeking advice with his "startup".
Directorguy From Egypt, joined Jul 2008, 1546 posts, RR: 12 Reply 23, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 12217 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW CHAT OPERATOR
Apparently 'Adam Tait' has a form of autism. In this case, this 'handicap' can do wonderful things if Tait channels his talents in the right direction.
As a.nutters, we all wistfully admire this kid, and hope that we can be like him in some way. Kudos to him for trying !
Anyone remember which issue the article appeared in Airliner World? I'm intruiged...but I confess I remember nothing.
LHR380 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2009, 4367 posts, RR: 15 Reply 24, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 11583 times:
Quoting Directorguy (Reply 23): Apparently 'Adam Tait' has a form of autism. In this case, this 'handicap' can do wonderful things if Tait channels his talents in the right direction.
Yep, look at the likes of Fred Smith (Started FedEx) and not forgetting one of my favorite CEO's, David Neeleman of Jetblue, both have ADHD and a form of Autism.
(The views on this site are my own and no one elses)
25 FCA767: Did the Paper say this is his website Island Airways Looks cool if it is...
26 Paulkelly580: give him a job with aer lingus better than this new guy they've taken on as ceo
27 ACdreamliner: i hate to be nieve, but apart from using a fake name and age (which many people do for various things, although not me i have to say). In planning an
28 Brilondon: No contracts were ever signed let alone consummated and there for nothing to sue for.
29 OA260: Haha I was wondering what Pe@son was doing all these studies for
30 Pe@rson: Excuse me, education is key to getting to the desired ladder, and then experience, practice and reputation takes over. Moreover, I do what I say I wi
31 OyKIE: Indeed. But still what is brilliant is that he knew so much about the industry that no one caught him bluffing in the start. He had to know a lot in
32 Jetjack74: Well regardless of how far he got or whether or not he negotiated "contracts", he still committed or attempted to commit fraud. The kid a few years fr
33 CitrusCritter: Considering this appears to be the second fraud he has attempted to perpetrate (the other being the fraud on High School Musical as mentioned in the a
34 Wannsee: As the journalist who investigated this saga for Airliner World and was involved in the Sunday Times investigation. I can confirm that that “Adam”
35 OyKIE: Thank you for a very informative reply. Do you happen to know what drives him? Is it to fool people, or does he actually believes he can be successfu
36 Wannsee: From the information that I have his actions are as a result of his illness. As sad as it sounds I am not sure he even knows what he is doing least of
37 BMI727: I think that this is an important question. Was this always just a scam or a game? Or did he really convince himself that he could get off the ground
38 Wannsee: who knows what was going on in his mind. I do not think he knew the damage he could have caused. All credit to Essex Police for preventing him getting
39 Wannsee: Just a qiuck update: It appears that he also tried something like this with the Railway Industry as well as in New Zealand Martin
40 Egyptair269: Very Interesting Article, Boy Genius
41 EDICHC: True, but if this proves to be the case..... Then neither is he to be condemned. People who endure mental health issues suffer enough as it is.
42 Ferengi80: Please refrain from the use of the word 'handicap'; it is a derogatory term to the disabled community.
43 Tugger: The word itself is not derogatory to many, it's being defined as handicapped or by your handicap that offends the disabled community. And I have hear
44 EXTspotter: The guy has asperger's syndrome, which is what I and I imagine what a huge number of the rest of you have. As syndromes go it is one which can be extr
45 GAIsweetGAI: Reminds me of some thread in Av Hobby a while ago (I'm feeling too lazy to go dig it up)
46 Planesailing: This month, page 14 titled New Channel Islands Operator. I have to say that I thought the plans odd considering the present climate when I read the d
47 Luv2cattlecall: Since when did Neeleman have autism? Google proved fruitless... in fact, "David Neeleman eats cake" has about as many results as "David Neeleman auti
48 Richierich: He was bound to get caught out eventually. If Leonardo (Abagnale) could get caught out - and he did eventually - it almost always ends badly. Then ag
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