More lawyer blurb in response to pulse1.
In the scenario raised above (2 pilots in low flying aircraft), then , assuming that the low flying is not carried out in order to avoid “immediate danger” (in which case the departure from the Rules of the Air is permitted), both pilots are in trouble.
ANO 74(2) provides that it is an offence to contravene, or permit the contravention of, or to fail to comply with the Rules of the Air.
One of the Rules of the Air is Rule 5: the low flying rule, which is expressed in terms of “an aircraft shall not fly” etc.
ANO 111(1) provides: “If any provision of this Order, of any regulations made thereunder or of JAR145 is contravened in relation to an aircraft, the operator of that aircraft and the commander thereof shall (without prejudice to the liability of any other person for that contravention) be deemed for the purposes of the following provisions of this article to have contravened that provision unless he proves that the contravention occurred without his consent or connivance and that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the contravention”.
If the commander says “I told the flash g!t not too fly so low but he ignored me”, he will probably be met with the answer: “What about ANO 59? You should have ordered flash g!t to give you control and climbed to a lawful height” ANO 59 says:-
Authority of commander of aircraft
59. Every person in an aircraft registered in the United Kingdom shall obey all lawful commands which the commander of that aircraft may give for the purpose of securing the safety of the aircraft and of persons or property carried therein, or the safety, efficiency or regularity of air navigation
(BTW I always take pleasure in reminding my wife and other pax of this, making sure to tell them that I can order them to walk the plank for the slightest insubordination, and I point out to my wife that, for safety reasons, I should be deemed to be wearing my aircraft commander hat at any time when there are headsets in the boot of the car, as we might be about to go flying).
If, however, the Commander could persuade the Beaks that flash g!t refused to obey orders, he might get off. The handling pilot would be sentenced to death or to copy out JAR-FCL by hand (whichever was preferable)
On the swapping of commanders in flight, a lot of the stuff in the ANO and Rules of the Air refers to “the Commander this and the commander that”. For example, the Commander of the a/c must check the wx before beginning the flight. So what happens if ID of Commander changes and the new boss hasn’t briefed on weather?
Wonder what m’learned friends lawyerboy and flying lawyer think of this?
Incidentally, to cross-thread for a moment to the truly excellent spinning thread on the instructor’s forum, it seems that ordering the pax to walk the plank may be the approved technique for spin recovery in certain a/c, especially Bulldogs and Vampires. Must NB this as I recently got checked out on the Doggie and am saving my pennies to buy that clapped out Vampire that’s for sale in Wales.