Originally Posted by
vanHorck
The lack of outrage worries me.
My two cents.
I'm seriously outraged. The report actually said little that wasn't already obvious, and is an AAIB masterclass in impartiality. (having been through the AAIB process I've had read to me the statement read to anyone questioned after an accident. The AAIB state that they are there to find out why it happened, not to apportion blame or be involved in criminal or disciplinary procedures) An inadequate, and apparently unlicensed pilot was given the opportunity to kill himself and an innocent third party by a person who spat in the face of the rules in place to protect the paying public. While Henderson may have got away with the manslaughter charges I suspect the illegal public transport may see him accomodated by Her Majesty for some time.
The loosening of the rules around "cost sharing" has made illegal charter even harder to pin down. Illegal charter has always happened, in my job I've seen angry pilots take an illegal charter pilot behind a building and administer some discipline. I run an AOC and live with the onerous burden of the oversight and compliance we are expected to deal with daily. I've watched a PPL with 200 hours laughing at commercial crews because he was being paid to fly a PA28 with paying customers to an airport for a good amount of cash.
I've seen the "cost sharing" websites and calculated the advertised costs of the flight against the real costs and worked out that some people are making hefty profits. Helicopter pilots taking sightseeing flights down the Thames not realising that an AOC doing the same thing has to have a non-standard flight plan in place, he thinks it doesn't apply to him as he's private and "all that **** is AOC ****" actually it applies to him as well.
This was a high profile accident, it highlighted a serious problem in UK aviation. This is a PROFESSIONAL PILOTS RUMOUR NETWORK, a lot of people on here are PPL's, and many high time ATPL's, well get this, ignorance of the rules and claiming "I'm private" is not acceptable, you share the sky with all of us making a legal living, you live by the rules we do, because when it goes wrong, if you're outside the rules you'll be in a world of hurt and all the pro's will be commenting on what a c### you are. I'd really like to see more people on here questioning what they want to do when flying, because some pilots on here have vast levels of experience, have made a lot of the available mistakes and have knowledge in many useful areas, perhaps the Private Flying Forum could be steered more this way.
Ibbotson would have known his license status, could have saved a lot of expense and hassle by just killing Sala when they first met, rather than getting into a doubtful aircraft without a valid license on which he was intending to be paid. Henderson gave him the weapon and desreves the opprobrium of the entire aviation community, the MacKays claim they thought Henderson was acting legally. Come off it chaps, it was all very cheap and you thought you were just getting a good deal, and lets face it you have history with aviation, you know how expensive it can be. And for the biggest fool of the lot in my opinion, the man who claims great aviation knowledge and experience, who's pronouncements about PBN approaches recently have shown just how worthless your knowledge and impartiality are, I give you the Rt Hon Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, the man who unmuzzled the "cost sharing" rules and made illegal public transport so much easier. Take the smarmy smile off Grant, you've been terribly quiet about this, a statement from you on how Illegal Public Transport will be tackled would be good, or maybe I'm a bit wrong about you and you won't stoop to such hypocrisy knowing that certain members of the media will flay you alive. I've given a lot of my time over the last 30 years to many aviation safety causes, there's an occasional word of thanks which I always greatly appreciate, but F### you Grant, I'm not giving my time (which actually costs my company) any longer while such an egregious fool as you spins in his big leather chair and riks the lives of the public and the employment of thousands of people in this country.
Yes I'm outraged, F###ing outraged! I work my arse off and risk my home and all my assetts to keep AOC staff employed when people try to steal from me and my team, then kill an innocent and cause untold damage to the industry I've worked in for over 30 years. This case frankly sickens me.
SND