Call me Captain, and Catch Me If You Can

(Getty Images)

An Italian man has been arrested by police after flying as a fake airline pilot. The man apparently managed to hitch a ride in the cockpit of at least one jet as third pilot.

He was stopped at Turin Airport wearing a pilot's uniform and using forged ID cards under the name Pilot Andrea Sirlo. He also set up Facebook and Twitter accounts - with flight attendant friends to boot.

He's now been charged with attempting to threaten air security and assuming a false identity.

The case is reminiscent of the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, in which Leonardo Di Caprio played Frank Abagnale, a real-life con-man who flew as a fake Pan American pilot in the 1960s. Apparently the man said to police:

"I saw that film and I wanted to be like Frank Abagnale." Don't we all, cap'n.