Originally Posted by
jecuk
The plane was UK based as was the pilot and the person who is alleged to have been organising these flights. They seem to have been taking place for a while. The flight appears to have been part of a roundtrip. How is the CAA not (at least partly) responsible for enforcement?
The CAA oversight of foreign aircraft is carried out on behalf of the Dept for Transport through the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA), normally Ramp inspections. This is mostly aimed at those operations that present the highest risk to the travelling public, that is large commercial transport operators into the UK. The proportion of GA aircraft subject to SAFA inspections will be small in comparison. As I said, the operator and passengers of an illegal commercial flight are unlikely to admit that it is such a flight making enforcement a challenge. CAA do take enforcement action when evidence is available of a breach in aviation law. From their website:
Unsafe flying- We can investigate incidents of unsafe flying. You need to provide evidence of the incident and to enable us to track the aircraft concerned you would ideally have its registration. For UK aircraft this is normally G- followed by four letters and is on the side and wing of the aircraft. Examples include unapproved and dangerous low aerobatics or a helicopter landing in a place that puts people or property in danger (helicopters are allowed to land away from airfields providing they can do so safely and they have the landowners’ permission).
Other examples we can investigate include aircraft flying without the correct approvals,
companies or individuals charging for flights without the correct certificates, pilots flying without the correct licences and engineers undertaking unapproved work