Yes, it's misrepresentation, but only of the facts. Misrepresent a person, company, etc and, as a journalist, the law kicks-in.
Can't find the thread from a year or two back (help me out here Hilico/Heliport), but wasn't it the
Daily Mirror that hired a helicopter for a pleasure trip over London's Houses of Parliament, took a photo of Big Ben, and then ran a screaming headline about how they could have hijacked the craft and sent it crashing into the seat of government... blah, blah
. Strangely, the paper wasn't so concerned about its employees' basic safety then.
At the risk of boring everyone again, I'll repeat that nothing will change until a positive
PR campaign is mounted. The UK's trucking industry largely turned round its image by being more...well...articulate. So, at least the model and the know-how is already there.
Any volunteers?
Dan
(an ex-editor of
Helicopter World who declined to contribute to this week's media coverage on the grounds he wasn't there, doesn't have the facts to hand and won't speculate where it isn't helpful) Call me old-fashioned, I suppose
And the daily road death toll in the UK is 10, and around 120 across western Europe