BBC at Shoreham EGKA

[Badger737]

Have just seen a BBC SNG truck with reporter doing piece to camera. I was parked a little way away but heard frequent references to the Border Agency, increasing security, the olympics and missiles on roofs.

He did make a big issue out of the fact that somebody landed and took off again from Shoreham without having his passport checked (wave passport borrowed from cameraman for dramatic effect).

Has anything actually happened to prompt this or is it just a case of the media going after GA again?

[dazdaz1]

The report has been featured on the BBC Radio 5 Live most of the day. It's basically about how he left the UK flew to Calais airport and flew back again without showing a passport nor any security checks. Apart from ATC asking on the return how may people were on-board the a/c.

[Badger737]

Thanks, That will be a quiet news day then. Have been at work all day on the airfield so haven't kept up with the news. This chap standing on a box did seem to be trying to dramatise the business somewhat. About par for the course I fear.

[Just a spotter]

Maybe they were lobbying for the UK to sign up to the Schengen Agreement ...

Think of how many Border Agency staff that would free up.

[lenhamlad]

As an ex immigration officer and PPL holder flying out of Headcorn, it is disappointing that the BBC have done this.It is nigh on impossible to staff every airport in the country with an immigration/customs presence - the powers that be are too busy trying to staff the major airports as it is. Several weeks ago, we had four illegals brought into Headcorn on a Saturday morning from Belgium. Thanks to the vigilance of our ATC, the illegals were spotted getting out of the plane and walking out of the airfield. The owner of the airfield managed to get the illegals to come back to the airfield long before the police and and UKBA turned up. I don't mind UKBA being taken to task but the knock-on effect on the cross channel movement of GA traffic which is easy enough at the moment could be made a lot harder. Already UKBA senior officials are taking more than a passing interest in movements in and out of Headcorn. On this occasion the least the pilot should have done was to take the passenger(reporter) to ATC to show his passport.

[lenhamlad]

Think of how many Border Agency staff that would free up.

Free up to do what? Go out and arrest the thousands of illegals who would come in through the open door policy that is Schengen. We know from experience that Italian and Greek immigration officials working around the Med don't give a hoot about a lot of the immigrants because they know that they are not going to stay in Southern Europe but head up to the Northern European states.

[peterh337]

It is so much easier to bring in immigrants on a boat...

I wonder what the idiot pilot who did this stupid stunt was thinking... Another idiot pilot did something similar via Bournemouth about a year ago, and got similar media coverage.

[foxmoth]

Thanks to the vigilance of our ATC, the illegals were spotted getting out of the plane and walking out of the airfield.

isn't this the story they should really be pushing - a positive one where the system actully works and the small airfields are working to make that so?

Oh, silly me, we are talking news media, positive news is not worth covering!:*

[patowalker]

BBC News - No passport checks at UK small airfields (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18969889)

[Fostex]

This is such a non-story, it doesn't even merit comment.

What the hell does he propose as a solution. Full customs and immigration at every grass strip. Immigration at every cove around these islands were it is possible to dock and offload a ship.

Simply nonsense.

[Ballywalter Flyer]

I used to fly out of EG## and for as long as I can remember, if we were making international flights, with 24 hours notice, nothing was checked. We did not even get a visit from customs & excise, borders agency or special branch. It really was a non event. I no longer fly from that airfield (moved away) so cannot say if this is still the case, though I suspect it still is.

[A and C]

One of the things about the GA community is that it tends to keep its house in order, most of us would report any ileagal activity to the authoritys and that is why the authoritys have an uncanny ability to show up when they are needed.

In this situation the rules that are in place are appropriate for the situation, any more regulation would be expensive to the tax payer and would not yeald any better results.

As per usual the BBC are only after a cheap story and dont want the facts to get in the way of this.

All this shows me is that the BBC are employing lazy third rate people and it is typical of the media in general...........A buch of people who have power but no resonsability for their actions.

[percy prentice]

A buch of people who have power but no resonsability for their actions.But can they spell ?:O

[Jan Olieslagers]

we had four illegals brought into Headcorn on a Saturday morning from Belgium

Hm, that makes me rather curious. Registration? Departure A/D?

[peterh337]

The pilot is an idiot because he did an illegal flight and then allowed the BBC to brag about it.

The BBC reporter is on record there saying they paid for his fuel. That is almost certainly a breach of the PPL cost sharing rules. Even if the reporter was the only passenger, the fuel must have come to more than 50% of the direct costs.

The story itself is bollox because you can enter or leave the UK in a boat, with no checks :) The impact on immigration is orders of magnitude below "negligible". This is how light aviation has been for decades.

The terrorism threat is nonsense because the only way to stop the theoretical risk is to ban all aviation.

[BillieBob]

The pilot is an idiot because he did an illegal flightNo, he didn't. You have concluded, on the basis of insufficient/inaccurate information, that the flight was illegal, which makes you no better than the bottom feeders who ran the story in the first place.

What evidence do you have that the flight was illegal, bearing in mind that neither hearsay nor presumption is admissible as evidence?

[peterh337]

Did you listen to the BBC soundtrack?

[BillieBob]

Do you know the definition of hearsay?