Actually, he said on the phone call to the tower that he'd lost his airman certificate, which I took to mean he'd misplaced it and was waiting for the replacement to arrive.
“”Actually, he said on the phone call to the tower that he’d lost his airman certificate,””
I heard “Temporary Airman Certificate” and if he had one of those because he lost his pilot certificate, that doesn’t say much for his presence of mind. I don’t know anyone who ever lost such an important piece of paper - it would be like a veteran losing his DD214..I worked for years at an office building on JWA where B727 Flight Engineers were trained and some of those students (a ton of foreigners) were lulus but they came to training with all the proper paperwork - no excuses. Have to say the only thing they forgot to bring (again foreigners) was antiperspirant...and they always remembered their “cologne”.....