Essex Pilot gets 17 years

[UV]

Essex pilot Sidney Wright got 17 years (yes 17) for dropping 2 kilos of cocaine and 7 guns from his Cessna near Maningtree, Essex....

Two men jailed after guns and drugs dropped from light aircraft (From Harwich and Manningtree Standard) (http://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/eveninggazettenews/3779295.Two_men_jailed_after_guns_and_drugs_dropped_from_lig ht_aircraft/)

and more here...
North Essex: Airfield tightens security (From Harwich and Manningtree Standard) (http://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/eveninggazettenews/3785935.North_Essex__Airfield_tightens_security/)

[S-Works]

Good show. Keep the scum off the streets and out of the air.

[Pace]

This sort of behaviour doesnt do our cause any good and adds fuel to the arguemnt of anti terrorism legislation against GA and further restrictions on our operations :(

These were drug and firearm dealers and deserved all that came to them.

Pace

[wsmempson]

His Cherokee is tucked up in the hanger at Gt. Oakley - a right knackered old piece of crud. It deffo wasn't a Cesspit - I would have noticed! A nasty red and blue paint scheme.
:rolleyes:The airfield owner said he thought it was a bit odd that the pilot used to taxi in and out of the hanger under power....:rolleyes:

[PoloJamie]

Has been reported it was a 172, not a Cherokee?

I read about this in the local rag the other day, a damn good show. Unfortunatly this isn't an unheard of event, using GA aircraft for drug runs.

Anyone remember the accident in Kent a few years back when a Cherokee crashed with a lot of dope in the back?

[Katamarino]

Makes you wonder, though, when Chav kids are getting far far less time for kicking people to death...

[bigfoot01]

Sorry, I might understand some debate about drugs (but not much) but dealing in guns....

[Newforest2]

So he's going to lose his licence?:eek:

[airborne_artist]

The key to this is the location - Essex. Surely unthinkable in a more genteel county such as Gloucestershire.

Not sure what an airfield owner can do to check the bona fides of an aircraft owner though. A friend has just gone through a five year battle with the Home Office to allow employers of companies making/carrying industrial explosives to check their staff.

[AMEandPPL]

So he's going to lose his licence

CAA literature always makes it quite clear that you have to be a FIT person to hold a pilot's licence - in every sense, not only medically fit (that's my bit ! ) but socially, honesty, integrity, too.

[vanHorck]

i d bet his license will lapse.....

[AMEandPPL]

despite being solid it could still sustain some fair damage - and make a big hole in the ground at that arrival speed

Home made parachute of some kind . . . . . . . . . ? ?

[wsmempson]

No chute apparently, each package was just rolled off the wing root when he turned right; and it was a PA28, not a 172 - I saw it with my own eyes and think that I know the difference!:hmm:

[G CEXO]

i d bet his license will lapse.....

:}:}

G-XO

[MerlinV8]

Wouldn't a C172 be better for this kind of air-work, keep the parcels on the seat and then just open the window, no wing to get in the way and a better view when S&L :cool:

[NutLoose]

MerlinV8Wouldn't a C172 be better for this kind of air-work, keep the parcels on the seat and then just open the window, no wing to get in the way and a better view when S&L http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/cool.gif

You can't have any Tom Dick or Harry throwing stuff out of any old Aircraft or the Country would be full of people tossing odds and sods out of windows....... No you have to have the correct C of A Category for Aerial Work..... A Private Category Aircraft will just not do.. ;)

[PompeyPaul]

You can't have any Tom Dick or Harry throwing stuff out of any old Aircraft or the Country would be full of people tossing odds and sods out of windows
Wait, am I not meant to be throwing my empty Ribena cartoon & Gingsters sausage roll wrappers out of the window like I do my car on long journeys ? :confused:

[BackPacker]

Should have gotten an exemption from the CAA for "flour bombing".

[alvin-sfc]

What I want to know is, ahem..........................how high was he?:rolleyes:

[Fleep]

used to empty me ashtray over ber ming am at least twice a week

[broadreach]

Isn't the issue "how did the stuff get to Essex in the first place?" And, having got there, what part of the illicit business plan determines that the next, in-country, leg has to be by air ending with a precision drop? Would it not have been easier just to drive?

Don't think I saw anything in the report about a second person in the aircraft so, presumably, the person flying it would also have had to be the person reaching over, opening the door and shoving the stuff out. At pretty low altitude. All sounds, err, neanderthal, if that's still pc. Or have I missed something?

Have just seen wsmempson's post about the packages being "rolled off the wing root when he turned right". But of course! A string through ze door, to be cut with a pen-knife at ze moment.

[wsmempson]

According to the airfield owner, the pilot and a scrofulous, baldrick-type assistant were zipping over to Holland and Belgium, picking up the 'merchandise" and dropping it into a field in the UK, before going back to the field.

[RatherBeFlying]

This should really go into the Stupid Criminal archives. It had to be daylight because a citizen was able to report the plate number.

Mind you, there are hazards in making night drops. Many years ago before GPS, a larger Cessna single was found in a woodlot considerably North of an unlit runway. It turned out that this pilot too was involved in importing cocaine.

It also goes to show that crashes into forested areas are quite survivable if you don't stall in;)

[cessna-kevin]

im no expert but seems like a long stretch as rapists and murderers get less time, i dont condone it by any means but he was the monkey not the organ grinder and why did he have to throw it out of the aircraft??

[IO540]

why did he have to throw it out of the aircraft??

The obvious way would be to fly to a private strip somewhere, but I think "everybody" knows by now that the police are watching private strips very carefully.

It's pretty stupid anyway to try this because the police are obviously acting on tipoffs from the departure end, or some other intelligence, so even if you managed to do an air drop, they will still be waiting for you at your landing point. The merchandise may be gone but they can still do the forensics.

I think it's really stupid to do this kind of thing with something so visible as an aircraft, whose reg is written on the side in huge letters. A boat in the middle of the night would be so much easier.

[PompeyPaul]

Like I said - clearly not the brightest spark.. these guys rarely are.
Although I was reading a post from a copper who was suggesting that it's the thickest guys that are generally caught, because they are, well, thick.

It's Darwinism in action. The thickies get caught leaving the better prepared, better organised, sharper operators to attack society with guns & drugs.

The other depressing thing is that even though it's good these guys were caught (I don't really want semi automatic shooters on the streets of my local town) it really doesn't make any difference. Unless you manage to seize something like 90% of all inbound drugs you have no effect on supply at the street level. Dealers simply dilute what they have and carry on peddling as normal.

Although I'm glad there's one less bad guy around, ultimately, the amount of money we spend on the war on drugs is all a total waste.

We could have subsidised GA instead and a whole new army of posters on pprune for the "golden ones" to question their training!

[timzsta]

Will he get day release to do his bi annual flight review...

[jxk]

Hope he learns it's biennial non biannual:-)