{"id":80034,"date":"2023-01-24T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/01\/24\/flight-school-cheating-ring-ends-in-second-chances-for-hopeful-pilots\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:19:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:19:29","slug":"flight-school-cheating-ring-ends-in-second-chances-for-hopeful-pilots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2023\/01\/24\/flight-school-cheating-ring-ends-in-second-chances-for-hopeful-pilots\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight school cheating ring ends in second chances for hopeful pilots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than two dozen hopeful pilots who were caught cheating on a written test in September 2022 while attending the Army\u2019s flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama<\/a>, received a second chance and passed a retest on Thursday, according to command officials and an internal investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army Times obtained a 212-page internal investigation by an Army Aviation Center of Excellence<\/a> officer detailing the cheating ring among officers and warrant officers attending the service\u2019s initial entry rotary wing training course. They used an \u201caltered\u201d version of an official publication \u2014 which Army Times also obtained \u2014 that contained the answers to an open-book doctrine exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aviation Center of Excellence spokesperson Lt. Col. Andy Thaggard confirmed the violations in a statement emailed to Army Times on Thursday in response to questions about the investigation. The spokesperson stressed that \u201call flight school students, regardless of if they are from the U.S. Army or one of our Allies and Partners, are briefed multiple times during orientation about…standards and expectations \u2014 including the Honor Code.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thaggard added that the center\u2019s top general, Maj. Gen. Michael McCurry, met individually with the implicated students and decided to give \u201ceach Soldier…an opportunity to successfully complete flight school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the students faced court-martial for the cheating, nor did they receive any administrative punishments that would \u201chave a lasting effect on their career,\u201d Thaggard added in a phone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After passing a rewritten, closed-book version of the same test on Thursday, Thaggard noted, \u201cthey have completed all requirements to graduate flight school, and they will all be moving on to the next assignment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the cheaters were caught<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Instructors learned of the cheating during the course\u2019s \u201cAviation Doctrine Week\u201d \u2014 the final classroom hurdle that students face after months of flight instruction before their capstone flight simulator exercise and graduation \u2014 in mid-September 2022. The week culminates in a major test, during which students are allowed to use official Army publications as reference materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students who reach doctrine week represent a significant training and financial investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 15, the day before the final doctrine exam, a student approached cadre members before the test to inform them that a \u201ccheat sheet\u201d was circulating among his peers and he was \u201cnot comfortable taking the exam,\u201d according to the investigation. The document in question was a doctored version of an aviation tactics techniques publication that contained answers to the upcoming exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\t