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-   -   Cardiff City Footballer Feared Missing after aircraft disappeared near Channel Island (https://www.pprune.org/accidents-close-calls/617514-cardiff-city-footballer-feared-missing-after-aircraft-disappeared-near-channel-island.html)

piperboy84 15th Mar 2019 23:50

With his experience you jump at the chance of almost any free GA flying or right seat on a commercial flight to gather experience. But not as PIC on your Jack Jones on a night IFR flight in a semi capable aircraft with some poor unsuspecting soul sitting in the back. That’s basically manslaughter.

EESDL 16th Mar 2019 11:38


Originally Posted by Mike Flynn (Post 10419130)



And of course knowing his financial predicament Henderson knew he would not decline.

When he handed the aircraft keys to Ibbotson that weekend it must have crossed his mind that he was encouraging and assisting Ibbotson to break the law.

The agent has explained he assigned Henderson to carry out the charter.

The lawyers will be beating a path to his door and given the sums involved this is going to be expensive.

Looking at the wider picture ,we have as others pointed out earlier, the issue of jockey flights and other grey area charters.

AOPA should be making a big fuss about this in the press to highlight how cowboy operations are undermining the genuine AOC companies.



Can we stop perpetuating the concept of ‘grey area’ charters.
The concern is with illegal flights.
Be it to take bird watchers to Scotland or a footballer to Cardiff.
The 3 1/2-year sentence for Robert Murgatroyd is encouraging but will it deter the ‘chancer’ when they know that their illegal flight will not be discovered unless/until they have an accident ?

justmaybe 16th Mar 2019 12:45


Originally Posted by EESDL (Post 10420446)

Can we stop perpetuating the concept of ‘grey area’ charters.
The concern is with illegal flights.
Be it to take bird watchers to Scotland or a footballer to Cardiff.
The 3 1/2-year sentence for Robert Murgatroyd is encouraging but will it deter the ‘chancer’ when they know that their illegal flight will not be discovered unless/until they have an accident ?

Interesting scenario revealed in latest AAIB report G-UFCO. The CAA aquiesence in cost sharing and Wingly type enterprises does in fact create a substantial grey area, and one that lends itself to exploitation.

Mike Flynn 17th Mar 2019 03:45


Originally Posted by justmaybe (Post 10420502)
Interesting scenario revealed in latest AAIB report G-UFCO. The CAA aquiesence in cost sharing and Wingly type enterprises does in fact create a substantial grey area, and one that lends itself to exploitation.

I have just read that report and clearly the arrangement had been going on for years.

In the Barton sentencing report this point emerged.

Murgatroyd's insurance was void as he held a private pilot's licence and was not allowed to run commercial flights.


https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-47589932

So I guess the insurers would refuse to pay for the airframe loss. No doubt the same applies to the Ibbotson aircraft.

Pittsextra 17th Mar 2019 07:33


Originally Posted by Mike Flynn (Post 10421125)

In the Barton sentencing report this point emerged.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-47589932

So I guess the insurers would refuse to pay for the airframe loss. No doubt the same applies to the Ibbotson aircraft.

Well RM is bankrupt andin prison the other guy is dead. One likely couldn't care less and the other is certain not to care less....

ATC Watcher 17th Mar 2019 10:42

I think you guys should open a new thread discussing legal, insurance issues and regulatory issues .
As far as Aviation professionals are concerned this is a clear case of a pilot having accepted to do a flight for which he was unqualified. Period. The rest is for the lawyers..and whether it was private or commercial ops is for the judge to determine in the end..
Can we prevent this from happening again . No. There are always 1% of people that want to bend the rules. Tightening the rules will not change that , just affect the 99% of us that do follow the rules...

jumpseater 17th Mar 2019 11:06


Originally Posted by Pittsextra (Post 10421197)
Well RM is bankrupt andin prison the other guy is dead. One likely couldn't care less and the other is certain not to care less....

g-bakh was owned by British North West Airlines, RM’s company. He risked his own assets in making his flight. The owner/s of Sala’s aircraft possibly didn’t realise/know the financial accident implications of the incident flight. They might want some recompense if the insurance company takes the same stance. This might start to send the message to illegal charterers that any incident means damages won’t be covered be it total loss or mild hangar rash.

ATCwatcher, why should someone else do it? nothing stopping you starting any thread you think should be started, crack on. The legal/insurance/licensing issues etc are key elements to this thread, and undoubtedly will remain being discussed here whilst of interest to contributors.

S-Works 17th Mar 2019 17:58

It’s fascinating that the owner of the airacrft has still not been identified?

tescoapp 17th Mar 2019 19:19

Its perfectly normal with N reg aircraft that are owned by none US citizens.

To be honest even European reg aircraft it can be a bit of a circular effort with several company's being setup and owned by each other in a circular fashion. There have been 747's abandoned in airports round the world where they have never found out who actually owned them to get them to remove them and pay the parking fee's. One is now a hotel in Arlanda.

MPN11 17th Mar 2019 19:33

There’s an abandoned light aircraft (Cherokee?) at JER ... even had recent notices in tne local paper “seeking owner”. :)

Been here for several years, apparently, a bil like the Jet Provost!


Edit to the above: G-OSTU (AA5A Cheetah) was apparently sold about 10 years ago. The last known owner was reportedly a woman in UK who sold it to 'someone in Jersey'. This from the Jersey Evening Post, 19 Mar 19.

Chronus 17th Mar 2019 19:46


Originally Posted by S-Works (Post 10421689)
It’s fascinating that the owner of the airacrft has still not been identified?

According to the press Southern Air Consultancy have given the name of the owners to the AAIB . This name has not been released to the public. However as the aircraft was based in the UK whoever was in day to day control of the aircraft will no doubt be known to all who had anything to do with it. If my memory serves me right, I believe I read somewhere on this thread it was kept at Gamston. So there will no doubt be records of who paid for its keep there and who picked up its maintenance bills, who had the keys to it and who the contact name and address was.

I suppose all interested parties are waiting for the Coroners verdict and the final report from AAIB before all manner of court summons start flying around and landing at various addresses of those involved in the whole process. Let`s see whether the Coroner will return a verdict of unlawful killing, accident / misadventure or contributed by neglect.

Air Snoop 18th Mar 2019 15:31

All has been said in this thread and this type of 'illegal' flying has been going on for years to the knowledge of the CAA. Although they can amend and quote the rules 'til the cows (or lucky illegal flights) come home, nothing will change until they take effective enforcement action and hit the perps in the pocket or bang them up to rights before they cause an accident.

The Old Fat One 18th Mar 2019 22:48


Can we prevent this from happening again . No. There are always 1% of people that want to bend the rules. Tightening the rules will not change that , just affect the 99% of us that do follow the rules...
Actually this is not quite true. In several industries the rules regarding "compliance" have been progressively developed to promote transparency and consumer rights (financial conduct since circa 2000 and more recently data protection...two good examples). Increasingly the onus falls on the service provider to provide clear, transparent, fair, accurate and consistent advice to the consumer. And the provider, will be often be "end to end" checked in any regulated transaction - often by compliance agencies.

Why is aviation not being held to the same compliance standards?

For example standardised and compulsory risk assessment in all GA marketing. Obligatory availability of insurance documents, logbooks, maintenance records etc to any passenger irrespective of cost basis, together with easy to understand guides of what the consumer should be checking.

Bottom line...nobody should need to get on any sort of aircraft without an clear and transparent understanding of risk.

None of this is hard...other industries, just as complex, have been doing this for years.

tescoapp 19th Mar 2019 05:41

Heard yesterday from a colleague that there is an international group of journo's doing research into the grey charter market. They have pulled a years worth of flight data from euro control. And apparently it obvious which airframes are doing it and which pilots. And its not just a UK thing. And we are talking three figure numbers of flights per week inside EASA area.

He was picked up because he ferried an empty aircraft back to Germany on his CPL last year before he started doing multicrew job . Its not just N reg which is involved.

Mike Flynn 19th Mar 2019 07:55

BBC Wales are running this interesting story.


There are calls for a series of flights in the weeks before the fatal crash which killed footballer Emiliano Sala to be investigated by regulators.

The aviation trade body Air Charter Association told BBC Wales it believes there are grounds to investigate other flights linked to the £15m transfer.

These carried Sala, his agent, Cardiff City officials and others between the UK and France in December and January.

In an exclusive interview with BBC Wales, Dave Edwards, chief executive officer of the Air Charter Association (Baca), warned that the "underground growth" of illegal and so-called "grey" charter flights was undermining legitimate air charter companies and putting passengers at risk.

These relate to flights which are not properly licensed under regulations governing aircraft and pilots.

He said the organisation's concerns about the sector date back about seven years and that they hold regular meetings with both the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) to discuss the issue.

Mr Edwards said: "The football agent has said on the record that they paid for a series of flights.

"We've done some background research into all of those flights and we're concerned more than ever that all of them have the potential to have, certainly, questions to be asked about them, which is what we've pushed the CAA to be doing recently and also Easa because the origin of the flight was in France so that comes under (their) territory.

"There's enough circumstantial evidence here that would make us push the authorities to do a full investigation into the background to ensure it was compliant."

Baca has done its own research through the European air traffic control agency and established the various operators and pilots for the flights linked to the Sala deal.



https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-47612188

tescoapp 19th Mar 2019 08:30

I suspect that might be the opening gambit in the UK side of things. It was a German reporter that spoke to my colleague but apparently there is French and Italian interest as well. .

korrol 19th Mar 2019 12:52

Yes . Here is the list of flights which are being investigated by the Air Charter Association :-
  • 5 December 2018 - Flight from Stapleford in Essex to Nantes - carrying Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock, assistant manager Kevin Blackwell, Willie McKay and Mark McKay to see Emiliano Sala play against Marseilles
  • 6 December - party returns from Nantes to Cardiff. Both flights made on G-KARE, operated by Surrey-based Flexifly Aircraft Hire Ltd
  • 8 January 2019 - Flight from Cardiff to Nantes - carrying Neil Warnock, Cardiff City player liaison Callum Davies, Willie and Mark McKay to meet Sala and his agent. They're flown back to Cardiff the same day. On N531EA, owned by Guernsey-based Channel Jets
  • 14 January - Sala's agent, Meissa N'Diaye, flown from Paris to Nantes. N'Diaye and Sala are flown from Nantes to Cardiff to have a look around the Cardiff City Stadium, returning to Nantes the same day. N'Diaye is then flown back to Paris. All flights made on N843TE - owned by Channel Jets
  • 18 January - Sala flies from Nantes to Cardiff for a medical and to sign his contract with Cardiff City. Via Channel Jets in N531EA. Sala's agent N'Diaye - who has travelled to Cardiff for the signing via a commercial flight - flown back to Paris by Lord George Porchester in his own aircraft, N14EF
  • 19 January - Sala flown back to Nantes by David Ibbotson on N264DB to bid farewell to his Nantes team-mates and make personal arrangements. Mr Ibbotson books into a hotel to await the return leg of the journey - on 21 January - to deliver Sala back to Cardiff for his first training session
  • 21 January - the flight leaves Nantes at 19:15 and disappears from radar around an hour into the journey.

Mike Flynn 19th Mar 2019 12:52

I think we all know there are many unanswered questions regarding the crashed Malibu and if I was investigating Gamston airport would be top of my list.

That is where the aircraft was based and it appears operated by David Henderson who the agents claim was their regular pilot.

I suspect he was also involved in arranging flights for the McKays if we believe their press statements.

I will be very surprised if we don’t see a CAA prosecution further down the line.

Clearly many aircraft operators have been hiding behind N registration to operate in the grey zone.

Europe appears quite lax in allowing N reg aircraft to be home based without returning to the USA.

These aircraft are operating under what clearly is a flag of convenience.

Across Asia to Japan and down to Australia and New Zealand this is not permitted.






captainspeaking 19th Mar 2019 13:49

Channel Jets AOC
 

Originally Posted by korrol (Post 10423553)
Yes . Here is the list of flights which are being investigated by the Air Charter Association :-
  • 5 December 2018 - Flight from Stapleford in Essex to Nantes - carrying Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock, assistant manager Kevin Blackwell, Willie McKay and Mark McKay to see Emiliano Sala play against Marseilles
  • 6 December - party returns from Nantes to Cardiff. Both flights made on G-KARE, operated by Surrey-based Flexifly Aircraft Hire Ltd
  • 8 January 2019 - Flight from Cardiff to Nantes - carrying Neil Warnock, Cardiff City player liaison Callum Davies, Willie and Mark McKay to meet Sala and his agent. They're flown back to Cardiff the same day. On N531EA, owned by Guernsey-based Channel Jets
  • 14 January - Sala's agent, Meissa N'Diaye, flown from Paris to Nantes. N'Diaye and Sala are flown from Nantes to Cardiff to have a look around the Cardiff City Stadium, returning to Nantes the same day. N'Diaye is then flown back to Paris. All flights made on N843TE - owned by Channel Jets
  • 18 January - Sala flies from Nantes to Cardiff for a medical and to sign his contract with Cardiff City. Via Channel Jets in N531EA. Sala's agent N'Diaye - who has travelled to Cardiff for the signing via a commercial flight - flown back to Paris by Lord George Porchester in his own aircraft, N14EF
  • 19 January - Sala flown back to Nantes by David Ibbotson on N264DB to bid farewell to his Nantes team-mates and make personal arrangements. Mr Ibbotson books into a hotel to await the return leg of the journey - on 21 January - to deliver Sala back to Cardiff for his first training session
  • 21 January - the flight leaves Nantes at 19:15 and disappears from radar around an hour into the journey.

I don't understand why there is a problem with the Channel jets flights; they have a Guernsey AOC.

Sir Niall Dementia 19th Mar 2019 14:17


Originally Posted by captainspeaking (Post 10423609)
I don't understand why there is a problem with the Channel jets flights; they have a Guernsey AOC.

N registered aircraft do not fly on Guernsey, EASA or even Mongolian AOC's, and this one isn't even covered by FAA Part 135 operation, therefore there is a problem with it operating for charter. The difference is between management of an aircraft and it being on an AOC. Where I work we have and AOC and manage aircraft on it, we also manage on behalf of owners aircraft both UK and foreign registered that are flown purely for the use of the owners. A couple of times we've found things arranged by the owners we've found either iffy, or just plane wrong. A brief chat with the owner along the lines of "you are risking our AOC, and our crew, please stop, or take your aircraft elsewhere" usually works, but I have gone as far as reporting an owner to the CAA and the authority in the state of registration.

SND


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