Rockets fired at aircraft

[LoopyLou]

I know where I'd like to insert a rocket ! Apologies if this isn't the correct forum.



Man fired 'rockets' at aircraft (taken from BBC webpage)


A landscaper has admitted blasting fireworks into the path of passenger planes landing at Edinburgh Airport.
Peter Crane, 20, fired the rockets from his back garden in Newbridge on a busy Friday night on 29 October 2004.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court he pleaded guilty to reckless conduct by placing pilots, air crew and passengers in potential danger.

Sentence was deferred for a background report. BAA said incidents of that kind were "grossly irresponsible".

At an earlier hearing, prosecutor Malcolm Stewart the exploding rockets could have harmed the landing gear or wiring of the planes or disturbed the pilots at a difficult time of the flight.

Because the passenger planes travel at 130mph, the margin of error is very small .


Prosecutor Malcolm Stewart,

"There was not only an actual risk of damage but a risk of the pilots being distracted by the noise or sudden flash which could have affected their night vision at this very crucial time," he said.

"Because the passenger planes travel at 130mph, the margin of error is very small and these were the highest category of rockets that can be legally sold to the public."

He added that he was surprised a similar incident had never occurred before.

He told Sheriff Isabella McColl that when the wind blew from the east, planes made their final descent into the airport directly above Crane's home at Riverside in Newbridge.

Air traffic controllers noticed the rockets exploding from about 1930 GMT for several hours until police detained Crane.

'Grossly irresponsible'

The controllers started to warn crews of the hazard and one pilot reported back: "If the last firework had happened a second later we would have been very close to it."

Crane admitted setting off the display but denied that he was intentionally aiming at aircraft.

However, he did admit knowing that planes flew directly above his house, sometimes very low.

BAA spokesperson Malcolm Robertson said: "Clearly we regard any behaviour of the kind which places aircraft and communities at danger as grossly irresponsible."

He added that the flights that night would have been a combination of international and shuttle flights.

[AlexB]

he must be mentally insane, lets say worse case scenario, a rocket enters intake of a turboprop, aircraft loses power, hits his house. :rolleyes:

[Airbus340FO]

AlexB

insane is right, but it will most likely not hit his house,
more likely the neighbors house.
planes dont drop like stones.. :-)

[Lon More]

He is 20 years old. The airport was there first. If he doesn't like it move away.

[GEENY]

Maybe he owns the airspace above his garden, my neighbour certainly thinks so.

[mjtibbs]

what a complete fanny :confused:

you can see fireworks from FL39. I can only imagine how distracting it would be on a final.

[LatviaCalling]

Fireworks rockets can destroy a private plane if the explosion happens just right and can damage a commercial aircraft, to say nothing of impairing the pilots' night vision and causing general havoc inside the flight deck.

We've had these nut cases before, plus the laser beamers that tried to blind incoming pilots. Last summer the FBI nabbed one of those goof-balls. I wonder what happened to him?

[Runaway Gun]

Pilots exercising LOOKOUT ???

It'll never catch on......

[Voeni]

He does not necessarily have to be insane...

In ZRH people tried to blind you with extremely strong lights, as part of their protest against new approach routes. Experienced once, but it's not at all dangerous, more ridiculous.

One incident is reported, where someone shot small light munition in direction of a small aircraft, about two years ago. While repeating the scenic flight with journos, an airprox happened with a bigger plane on the ILS :-)

[speed freek]

Doing a visual approach onto 04 at BHD, we had fireworks going off in our path. Wasn't dangerous at the time but if they got the aiming right, and rumour has it that they have (scorch marks on the belly for example), well that's just a bit silly!!! :confused:

On a lighter note, with puffs of smoke going off like that, and the prop synchro off it was definately WW2...

"Bomb bay doors open!" :}

[SixDelta]

He added that he was surprised a similar incident had never occurred before.

It has, a certain former owner of an Edinburgh based Flying School, sadly deceased now, was b*llocked by the Airport Authority for having a fireworks party under the 25 (as was) approach :)

Doh!

[Artificial Horizon]

This november 5th just gone, we were on final approach to 27L at LHR in A320 and at about 250 - 300ft we were hit right on the nose by a firework!! Wasn't so much dangerous to the aircraft but it gave both of us up front a hell of a shock and it certainly distracted for a good few seconds. Thankfully the autopilot was still in (just), if it hadn't been the pax would have got a wee bump at I lept out of my seat with fright. The bang was so loud once landed the cabin crew were straight on the interphone reporting it. What would possess someone to do this I don't know, did prove how vunerable LHR and other airports are that someone can hit a landing aircraft with fireworks!!!

[Genghis the Engineer]

I used to be quite involved with model rocketry and still talk to people involved with it. Make no mistake - the stuff rocketeers play around with now could take out a substantial aircraft - take a look here (http://www.ukra.org.uk/records/hpraltitude.shtml) for a bit of evidence of that.

However, for some years all organised rocketry has been NOTAMed, and rightly so. But, I've been to several events where a notamed launch site was overflown directly by both light and transport aeroplanes. I've launched a rocket myself to about 2000ft carrying a hens-egg on a parachute (at a NOTAMed launch) to then be underflown by a C152. That would have made for an interesting MOR!


Which is really only to make the point that there are ways and means to ensure that firework launching doesn't endanger aircraft. The PTBs were quite right to presecute this pillock.

G

[Full Emergency]

This november 5th just gone, we were on final approach to 27L at LHR in A320 and at about 250 - 300ft we were hit right on the nose by a firework!! Wasn't so much dangerous to the aircraft but it gave both of us up front a hell of a shock and it certainly distracted for a good few seconds. Thankfully the autopilot was still in (just), if it hadn't been the pax would have got a wee bump at I lept out of my seat with fright. The bang was so loud once landed the cabin crew were straight on the interphone reporting it. What would possess someone to do this I don't know, did prove how vunerable LHR and other airports are that someone can hit a landing aircraft with fireworks!!!

You should have got the ATC to tell us in the police control room roughly where it happened and we would have gone round their house and had a "chat" with them

FE

[Runaway Gun]

"You should have got the ATC to tell us in the police control room roughly where it happened and...

And then what? You'd have fired roughly in the correct location?

It was roughly 1.2 DME to the East. Accurate enough? :bored:

[Full Emergency]

"You should have got the ATC to tell us in the police control room roughly where it happened and...

And then what? You'd have fired roughly in the correct location?

It was roughly 1.2 DME to the East. Accurate enough? :bored:

Sorry. But I thought I made a sensible enough suggestion. I agree that to find the right people on that night might have been hard, but we know the surrounding areas well enough to at least have given it a try. We all understand how dangerous that was.

We spend at lot of time there patrolling it, and no we wouldn't have shot the people resposible. That said, you would be supprised how co-operative a person will become when you have a MP5 in your hands. That said, it on our patrols we see some people with a RPG or SAM-7 on their shoulder, totally different ball game.

[Wheelybin]

I was working on the evening of the incident referred to in the original post. For the idiot to suggest that he was not directly targeting aircraft is a complete fabrication. The traffic at the time varied from reasonably busy periods to quite quiet. There were no fireworks launched at times when there was nothing on final approach. However the majority of landing aircraft were greeted with not just one but three or four rockets around their path.
Not that it would justify it but the first thought was that it must be young kids, who didnt know the seriousness of the situation. To find out the guy was 20 just beggers belief.

[green granite]

There is a law that forbids the flying of balloons & kites above 250ft within 5
miles of an airfield. Is there one saying do not let off fireworks that might go above 250ft? if there is I've not heard of it. If not, then perhaps atc will have to set up a telephone line to clear rockets to be fired :D

remember: most people dont use common sense when they are having fun

[tired]

Full Emergency - yes, it was a good suggestion, thanks, (to ring the control room). Does LHR ATC have the control room number, should I ever be in a similar situation?

[HZMIS]

With regard though to some of the earlier posts, you want to get a visual approuch to the runway next time and then they can see how dangerous an aircraft is when you transit their overhead at 50ft.

[Full Emergency]

Does LHR ATC have the control room number, should I ever be in a similar situation?

Yes it does. It is a direct dial link between the LHR police control room and them. They know it's us, and visa verca.

Also, we can get ground, approach, and Departs all on our set, and receive and transmit on all channels.

FE

[tired]

Thanks FE, that's good gen, espeically the last paragraph. Have I read it correctly - if we transmit something on the LHR tower frequency, then you guys will hear it on one of your sets, so will know about, and possibly be reacting to, an incident even before ATC phones? That's a very useful piece of info that I didn't know.

[Full Emergency]

Thanks FE, that's good gen, espeically the last paragraph. Have I read it correctly - if we transmit something on the LHR tower frequency, then you guys will hear it on one of your sets, so will know about, and possibly be reacting to, an incident even before ATC phones? That's a very useful piece of info that I didn't know.

Only if the radio is turned on. If we go airside (even on the back roads) we have them switched on to whatever channel covers that part of the airfield. North has it's own channel to South. We would then switch all else off apart from our personal radios.


FE

[Full Emergency]

Thanks FE, that's good gen, espeically the last paragraph. Have I read it correctly - if we transmit something on the LHR tower frequency, then you guys will hear it on one of your sets, so will know about, and possibly be reacting to, an incident even before ATC phones? That's a very useful piece of info that I didn't know.

...............................

[P-T-Gamekeeper]

Whilst taking a MEDEVAC into EGBB a few years ago I had a firework shot at my a/c. I reported it to ATC, who were disinterested, and said it was common.

I guess times are changing.

Having served in a fair few warzones recently, that rocket got closer to me than anything else!!

[NG_Kaptain]

Somehow I've found myself on about three or four occassions doing the Canarsie 13L at JFK on the night at July 4th, felt like being at Tet during the 60's.

BTW security people at LHR are the nicest people in our route structure to deal with. Miami the worst.

[semirigid rotor]

Flying at midnight on this new Years Eve in a police helo, nobody had on a watch that coincided with someone else's timepiece. But we knew the new year was here when the whole sky erupted!! Probably the most spectacular sight I have seen in 30 years of flying.

It is not unusual to have fireworks shot at us (and sometimes worse distractions), it is more the shock of the flash that is a problem, not the actual firework. Always difficult to find the offender as they rarely do it a second time.

[Ed666]

Try flying into Manila, Philippines on New years eve!!

Puffs of smoke looking not too dissimilar to WWII flak just metres from the wingtip!

[Dave Gittins]

When I was in Manila in '97, we got the airport closed for 10 mins while we had the Nov 5th firework display at Nomads club.

It wasn't safe to go out on New Years Eve. So many maniacs fired their guns into the air that lots of things got punctured by falling bullets. Most years there are one or two fatalities.

DGG

[Ed666]

A bad night in Baghdad springs to mind!

[Curious Pax]

Looks People newspaper were trawling the site recently - this appeared in last Sunday's edition: Passenger Jet Hit by Firework (http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16586570%26method=full%26siteid=93463%26headline =passenger%2djet%2dis%2dhit%2dby%2dfirework-name_page.html)

Artificial Horizon's post liberally quoted from!

[fmgc]

The pilot - who we won't name to stop him from facing disciplinary action for speaking out on the safety issue - told a respected flying website: "It gave both of us upfront a hell of a shock.

i.e. We have no idea who the pilot we have just quoted is!!

[KLMer]

In the old days of flying a King Air about 6 years ago coming out of EGBB i had the same problem as P-T gamekeeper, a rocket exploded in front of us. Unfortunatly i was manually flying at the time during climb out, it scared the living **** out of us and disorientated us, took a few seconds to sort it out again. We reported it to ATC and they where not interested saying it happens all the time.

Though there is no real solution to stopping this sort of idiotic behavour maybe the in the meantime the NHS should stop perfoming so many lobotomy's on the general public......

[Onan the Clumsy]

[devil's advocate]

It'd be a bit of a crap airliner that could get taken out by a firework. Think how many fireworks we could buy for the army instead of real weapons if they could cause that much damage.

[/devil's advocate]

[ExSimGuy]

Maybe, on a "no-news day", the journos just do a "google" for keywords on the web.

So let's give them some . . .

Aircraft, explosion, airliner, disaster, crash, fire, CFIT (well, SOME of them might know that!) inferno, terrified passengers panic, pilot hero

:E

[The Otter's Pocket]

I will tell you a solution below 250ft...
"Too close for rockets...Switching to guns":E

Door gunners on sentry helicopters.:cool:

What does suprise me is the fact that he was able to do it for several hours (by all acounts), did his neighbours not think that something was amiss?

[egbt]

BBC reports today that perpetrator was sentenced to 2 months imprisonment.

[dwshimoda]

Apologies if covered elsewhere, please delete, but a quick search of here and ATC didn't show anything:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4650342.stm

Jail for fireworks air alert man

A landscaper who launched fireworks in the direction of passenger planes landing at Edinburgh Airport has been jailed for two months.
Peter Crane, 20, had directed fireworks from his back garden into the path of air traffic on 29 October, 2004.

The court heard that Crane had no idea of the potential risk
A landscaper who launched fireworks in the direction of passenger planes landing at Edinburgh Airport has been jailed for two months.
Peter Crane, 20, had directed fireworks from his back garden into the path of air traffic on 29 October, 2004.

He pleaded guilty to reckless conduct by placing pilots, air crew and passengers in potential danger.

Sheriff Isabella McColl told Crane the public had witnessed "the horror" of plane crashes on television.

She said: "This situation was considered by the pilots to involve a live possibility of danger.

"I therefore consider a custodial sentence should be imposed as a deterrent to others. My personal view is that this was a very serious matter."

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how air traffic controllers noticed the rockets exploding from about 1930 GMT on 29 October for several hours until police detained Crane at his home in Riverside, Newbridge.

'Grossly irresponsible'

The exploding rockets could have harmed the landing gear or wiring of the planes, or disturbed the pilots' concentration, the court was told.

Defence agent Alan Jackson said Crane had simply purchased the "cheapest" fireworks from a supermarket and did not know how high they would go.

Crane had lit the fuses in his garden and the fireworks had exploded in intervals, but he had not deliberately targeted the planes, Mr Jackson said.

He added that Crane would now get permission before holding any other firework displays in his garden.

BAA spokesperson Malcolm Robertson said it regarded any behaviour of the kind which places aircraft and communities at danger as "grossly irresponsible".

He added that the flights on the night in question would have been a combination of international and domestic.

[Engine overtemp]

Didn't search too hard then?
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=204080&highlight=rocket

[go-si]

Article in the Scotsman: http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=2477272005

This time they say that the fireworks were of the highest category that could be purchased.