My brother was a liar of unequaled gall.
For a long time he had my mother believing that he was the equal to 007.
Example. He had been taught in the service, remember he was in a highly secret unit (another lie), to fly any kind of aircraft or helicopter so that in the event he had to get back on our side of the Russian border he could steal whatever aircraft was available.
007 movie stuff.
As I had 10,000 hours mostly multi-engine, it totally blew me away that anyone could believe that bull.
He was probably 50 years old when he told that one.
Helicopters are really tricky machines and he could steal one with all of the instrumentation in Russian? Give me a break. He could not fly the most basic single engine trainer.
But all Mother knew about airplanes is that I could fly one and that we always got home in one piece.
Some of these people can lie their way out of anything as long as they only have to convince their family.
So as I said, unless you put your feet under that table, you have no idea. Even your situation was not the same even though it was a difficult one.
“But none of us know what he was telling his parents.”
Absolutely agree. What is being reported is conjecture based mostly on hearsay at this time.