Flight Training News article - part deux
Following a discussion with the Editor of Flight Training News, here is a copy of the article in question, published with permission.
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Hinton Pilot Flight Training closed down due to “safety concerns”
UK flying school Hinton Pilot Flight Training Ltd, headquartered at Hinton-in-the-Hedges airfield near Brackley with satellite bases at Cranfield and Sywell aerodromes, has been de-registered by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over “safety concerns”. This is believed to be the first time the UK CAA has taken such action against a UK Registered Training Facility (RTF). The de-registration of the school by the CAA means that the company is currently prohibited from conducting flight training, although FTN understands that the school is appealing the action, claiming that it is misconceived. In the meantime, students registered with the school have been advised to contact the Authority’s licensing department for information and advice.
A complex series of rumours, allegations, counter-allegations and court proceedings appear to have dogged the career of the flying school owner, 43-year-old Christopher Alexander.
FTN understands that the school’s registration was temporarily suspended last year due to concerns over “administrative oversights”, but was reinstated within about 24 hours. A CAA investigative team spent a number of days at the flying school’s Hinton premises having been informed by a third party that there were discrepancies in the training fleet’s certification. During the course of their investigations the inspectors discovered that they had no record of a medical certificate for Alexander. A few days later, in the early hours of the morning, Alexander was arrested at his home by police for flying without a valid flight crew licence (by means of not having a current medical).
Alexander was charged later that morning and was refused bail on the grounds that he was a flight risk. Having spent the rest of the day and night in jail he went before magistrates the following morning and was remanded into custody. The flight risk concern was upheld by magistrates, on the basis that Alexander owned a number of aircraft. Alexander claims that he was held in custody for more than a week before an appeal to a court judge resulted in his release on bail.
In January 2013, Alexander appeared in Oxford Crown Court to face the charges of flying without a valid medical. Alexander’s defence argued that the burden of proof (to prove that Alexander had no medical) rested with the prosecutor and not vice versa. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) counter argued that even if Alexander had a valid medical certificate (as he had previously claimed to the police, stating that he had a valid Class 2 medical certificate which had been issued in Ireland and an NPPL medical declaration), he was nonetheless culpable as he was unable to produce it. The Judge found in Alexander’s favour on the legal issue of where the burden of proof lay and Mr Alexander was subsequently found not guilty by a jury following the trial. The doctor who countersigned Alexander’s original NPPL medical declaration attended the trial and gave evidence that Mr Alexander did indeed have a valid medical.
During the course of these events, FTN was contacted by a person using the name ‘David Henderson’ who made a number of allegations relating to Alexander and his flying school, none of which he backed up with any evidence. FTN later discovered that the man calling himself Henderson was actually one Kevin Crellin, a fraudster with a number of prior convictions (including one for defrauding aircraft modellers). Crellin appears to have been a regular visitor to Hinton Pilot Flight Training in the run-up, and subsequent to the CAA’s investigations. One instructor at the school was allegedly defrauded of £1,000 by Crellin for the delivery of a Multi-Crew Cooperation Course (MCC) which never took place.
Rumours about the school and its owner continue to circulate with operators at other flying schools having questioned not just its business practices, but also its basic business model. The school’s core business appears to have been the delivery of Trial Flying Lessons or Air Experience Flights for a number of gift voucher companies selling these experiences. Those familiar with the sums usually paid by such companies – said to be as little as £60 for a one hour flight – believe it is simply not possible to operate a flying school at those rates, especially if such flights makes up the vast majority of a school’s business, which appears to have been the case at Hinton Pilot Flight Training.
Following the initial investigations by the CAA and subsequent acquittal at trial, Alexander later returned to court to face further charges, brought by the CPS, this time for breaching the Sexual Prevention Offences Order. Under his original name of Christopher Ebbs, he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy when he was a choirmaster. Alexander/Ebbs was spared jail due to having already spent time in custody in the run up to the hearing, and was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years and was banned from working with children in any capacity for the rest of his life. The 2013 charges refer to Alexander leaving the UK to go on holiday without obtaining express permission from the police (although he claimed that he had written to the police to inform them that he was going) and attending a choir where there were persons under the age of 16. He was fined £3,500 plus £1,000 costs.
Further trouble for the school and its owner came when one of the fleet’s Tomahawk aircraft crashed on take-off from Cranfield airfield in early June 2013. The crew, understood to be an instructor and student, suffered serious injuries. The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) have not yet reported on the circumstances of the accident and in the aftermath the school’s Cranfield offices were closed ‘temporarily’, but are not known to have re-opened before the CAA de-registration action.
FTN understands that Hinton Pilot Flight Training Ltd is contesting the de-registration action taken by the CAA and that the current revocation is subject to review under Regulation 6 of the Civil Aviation Regulations. At the time of writing, Hinton Pilot Flight Training is maintaining that the basis for the CAA’s action is misconceived.
David Henderson/Kevin Crellin has meanwhile been the subject of new allegations, including persuading members of an aviation internet forum to send monies to be forwarded to the wife of a pilot who had been seriously injured in an aircraft fire. FTN understands that none of the donated money has ever reached her.
As this complicated drama plays out, the owners of London Oxford Airport-based Pilot Flight Training have asked FTN to make clear that they have no affiliation with Alexander or his flying school and FTN is pleased to make that clear.
FTN understands that the CAA are keen to hear of any serious allegations that could potentially affect flight safety, if necessary via the Authority’s ‘Whistleblower Focal Point’ on 01293 573190.
(Published with permission, Copyright FTN, 2013)
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Last edited by znww5; 30th Sep 2013 at 13:50.