Cardiff City Footballer Feared Missing after aircraft disappeared near Channel Island
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Currently within the EU
Posts: 325
Calculation of the impact point is one thing, but there are very strong tides in that area.
If the aircraft broke up on impact the component parts are not going to be found just below the impact point. After several days of tides the wreckage will be spread over a wide area.
If the aircraft broke up on impact the component parts are not going to be found just below the impact point. After several days of tides the wreckage will be spread over a wide area.
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 47
FAA night qualification
Easy enough to look up Ibbotson's FAA license in the FAA directory. PPL SEL, issued on the basis of his UK license in 2014 (and doesn't say if the UK license was PPL, CPL or ATPL). No ratings, so yes, single-engine day VFR is all he was licensed to do with an "N" registered aircraft on his FAA license.
I'm not commenting on the legality of the accident flight, only on the expressed belief that the holder of an FAA PPL with no ratings is not qualified to fly at night.
Last edited by EXDAC; 3rd Feb 2019 at 15:22. Reason: correct punctuation error

Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: Bremen
Posts: 6
FAA 61.75
Perhaps there should be greater oversight of FAA 61.75 licences issued on the basis of U.K. PPL’s. They contribute to an apparent lack of knowledge of FAA regulations as no FAA testing is required for their issue. A quick check of FAA regulations and one would know that this flight should have never been undertaken. ‘Holding Out’ has already led to the shutdown of a flight cost sharing website in the US, and yet over here EASA lets it happen
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Location: Location
Posts: 29
"Garbling" is strictly a secondary radar phenomenon - nothing to do with primary radar. It is where two separate SSR return pulse trains (from different aircraft) overlap at the receiver and hence interfere with one-another.
Also, primary radar base of cover is a lot less than 1,000'. Typically out to 50 or 60 miles it is actually below ground level, hence the ground clutter that is removed by processing (e.g. STC, MTI). See the typical primary radar vertical polar diagram below.
Of course, the actual surface conditions close to the radar will influence this, as you rightly say, but not as much so as to give a 1,000' base of cover.

Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: In an ever changing place
Posts: 1,038
Actually the GEO Ocean Iii has positioned itself and is stationary at the intersection of all sonar tracks made today by the sonar ship FPV Morven. Its position is approx. 14nm bearing 300 degrees from the Casquets lighthouse.

Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: BREST
Posts: 2
The CAA and the DGAC know as much as we do about illegal public transportation. Their problem is to find a way to prosecute with reasonable chances to succeed. On many occasions they lost in court. Judges seem to follow politicians : "we want more business, let's take the rules down". The victims are the public (in the present case a highly respected and beloved young footballer) and to some extent the pilots who accept to play such a dangerous game.
All around in GA newcomers apply this simple scheme : let's buy a plane, finance it, and find people to rent it so that we can pay the bank with their money. If the plane flies often enough, it will also pay for maintenance and fixed costs. When the loan is finished, let's sell the plane and buy another one to do the same again. Well, that implies OPERATING an airplane, which is something they don't want to do, so they leave it up to isolated pilots in desperate need to build up hours. That's how it works. It's been like this for ages but worked mainly in closed circles such as sports. This seems to apply to the accidented aircraft.
But now, thanks to the internet, the same scoundrels have found a way to do it on a large scale. Just check out "www.airaffaires.fr". The website is dedicated to users who become "members" of club on line. Aircraft owners are invited to register their airplanes, desperate pilots are also invited to join. Then it is the member's job to organize the trip. The website is very active and the management reports a recent 2.1 M€ fund raising. Needless to say, the founder owns airplanes that are advertised on the website and fly a lot. An N registered MALIBU and a D registered JET PROP DLX, none of which is a suitable transport airplane. Everyone knows their payload is ridiculous but no one is there to check so they obviously fly overloaded very, very often.
The DGAC is investigating but they fear that legal action may not end up well...
Let's hope that SALA's accident will wake up some people at EASA because there will be more occurrence if nothing is done to stop this madness. And the number of AOC holder will decrease rapidly.
All around in GA newcomers apply this simple scheme : let's buy a plane, finance it, and find people to rent it so that we can pay the bank with their money. If the plane flies often enough, it will also pay for maintenance and fixed costs. When the loan is finished, let's sell the plane and buy another one to do the same again. Well, that implies OPERATING an airplane, which is something they don't want to do, so they leave it up to isolated pilots in desperate need to build up hours. That's how it works. It's been like this for ages but worked mainly in closed circles such as sports. This seems to apply to the accidented aircraft.
But now, thanks to the internet, the same scoundrels have found a way to do it on a large scale. Just check out "www.airaffaires.fr". The website is dedicated to users who become "members" of club on line. Aircraft owners are invited to register their airplanes, desperate pilots are also invited to join. Then it is the member's job to organize the trip. The website is very active and the management reports a recent 2.1 M€ fund raising. Needless to say, the founder owns airplanes that are advertised on the website and fly a lot. An N registered MALIBU and a D registered JET PROP DLX, none of which is a suitable transport airplane. Everyone knows their payload is ridiculous but no one is there to check so they obviously fly overloaded very, very often.
The DGAC is investigating but they fear that legal action may not end up well...
Let's hope that SALA's accident will wake up some people at EASA because there will be more occurrence if nothing is done to stop this madness. And the number of AOC holder will decrease rapidly.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Reading, UK
Posts: 10,894
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 1,085
If as you suggest an AOC won’t prevent it, first para, what checks, balances and controls do you suggest? An AOC provides some top cover if adhered to for the operator or crew to cancel a trip. A PPL has none apart from the discipline of operating within the privileges of their license.
Your checks and balances in this event event should have been, licensed, proficiency, aircraft serviceability, airfield & navaid serviceability and weather as the basics. Surely that’s what’s required to make the go/no go decision? Access to all of those were available to the pilot and he decided to fly, why? Playing devils advocate, even if some of those basics listed above weren’t available, and a pilot still decided to fly, why?
What further checks and balances are you suggesting will have a meaningful impact, i.e. a ‘no fly’ decision, and who’s going to administer and pay for them?
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: uk
Posts: 1,605
That area, all the way up to, including east and south of the channel light vessel, was searched by 2 aircraft on the Tuesday morning following the accident. It was fairly windy on the Tuesday morning, and the sea wasn't 'calm'.
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: MARS
Posts: 1,033
Deepest part of the Channel that area, close to the Hurd Deep. They will probably also find wartime munitions and low level nuclear waste which will lijely disrupt the search.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurd%27s_Deep
Alderney Hurd Deep radioactive waste 'not dangerous' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-22198566
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurd%27s_Deep
Alderney Hurd Deep radioactive waste 'not dangerous' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-22198566
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: In an ever changing place
Posts: 1,038

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Hotel Sheets, Downtown Plunketville
Age: 72
Posts: 0
How much does a PA46 piston cost to hire these days . More than a PA28 or a C152 I`d have thought. Could your average gas fitter afford it. So who paid for the hire, if no money changed hands who owed whom a favour. And who found the gas fitter and handed him the keys. There seems so far a trio involved in that ensemble. The footballers agent, his son and a pilot who appears to have done all sorts of dare-does with puddle jumpers. Out of this trio who is the one who is in the know with aeroplanes, must be the dare-do puddle jumper bloke.
There was a time when jumping at any chance to fly and build up hours towards that left seat regular job made sense and offered an opportunity of a career change. I cannot in this instance how it would have made sense to a 59 year old.
There was a time when jumping at any chance to fly and build up hours towards that left seat regular job made sense and offered an opportunity of a career change. I cannot in this instance how it would have made sense to a 59 year old.
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: In an ever changing place
Posts: 1,038
How much does a PA46 piston cost to hire these days . More than a PA28 or a C152 I`d have thought. Could your average gas fitter afford it. So who paid for the hire, if no money changed hands who owed whom a favour. And who found the gas fitter and handed him the keys. There seems so far a trio involved in that ensemble. The footballers agent, his son and a pilot who appears to have done all sorts of dare-does with puddle jumpers. Out of this trio who is the one who is in the know with aeroplanes, must be the dare-do puddle jumper bloke.
There was a time when jumping at any chance to fly and build up hours towards that left seat regular job made sense and offered an opportunity of a career change. I cannot in this instance how it would have made sense to a 59 year old.
There was a time when jumping at any chance to fly and build up hours towards that left seat regular job made sense and offered an opportunity of a career change. I cannot in this instance how it would have made sense to a 59 year old.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Cardiff
Posts: 513
How much does a PA46 piston cost to hire these days . More than a PA28 or a C152 I`d have thought. Could your average gas fitter afford it. So who paid for the hire, if no money changed hands who owed whom a favour. And who found the gas fitter and handed him the keys. There seems so far a trio involved in that ensemble. The footballers agent, his son and a pilot who appears to have done all sorts of dare-does with puddle jumpers. Out of this trio who is the one who is in the know with aeroplanes, must be the dare-do puddle jumper bloke.
There was a time when jumping at any chance to fly and build up hours towards that left seat regular job made sense and offered an opportunity of a career change. I cannot in this instance how it would have made sense to a 59 year old.
There was a time when jumping at any chance to fly and build up hours towards that left seat regular job made sense and offered an opportunity of a career change. I cannot in this instance how it would have made sense to a 59 year old.
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Moray,Scotland,U.K.
Posts: 1,421
When I first got an FAA 61.75 (in 1987) it was restricted to "day VFR only", even if I had a UK Night Qualification. Later the "day" restriction was lifted. I don't know if that showed on the accessable FAA database. He may have been FAA night legal.
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: UK,Twighlight Zone
Posts: 7,234
You can’t be FAA night legal on a 61.75 if the underlying licence specifically prohibits it.

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Hotel Sheets, Downtown Plunketville
Age: 72
Posts: 0
If that`s the case, then it increases the likelihood someone else was paying for the hire of the aircraft, the fuel and landing charges. Cannot be certain about money for pilot services, I thought plumbers have been minting it ever since the property boom, you cannot get one for love or money. Makes me speculate, maybe he was offered the PA46 free if he would just turn up for 5 minutes and fix a leaky tap at that mansion of the agent mentioned at an earlier post.