Plane crashes into couple's garden

[IRRenewal]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/25/nplane225.xml

"But it has made quite an impression in the conifers, very modern gardening. You'd pay a lot of money to buy something that looked like that at the Chelsea Flower Show."

Priceless!

[Justiciar]

I just read this bit in the paper. How refreshing that there are still some people who can take a laid back approach to life rather than winging about anything and everything. Good for you, Mr. & Mrs. Watling :ok:

And, what were this elderly couple about to watch on TV? A "bank heist movie". Priceless indeed.

[englishal]

Fantastic...I like these people! :ok:

[Will Hung]

Yeah, but a solicitor hasn't approached them yet with a conditional fee arrangement ! I'm sure eventually it will have traumatised them to an extent where compensation is sought !!!!!

[SteelCity]

what were this elderly couple about to watch on TV? A "bank heist movie". Priceless indeed.


Appropriate, as the passenger was a prisoner on day release ....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7263515.stm

[dhp41]

Kent Online has pictures of the aircraft being recovered:

http://www.kent-online.co.uk/news/default.asp?article_id=38765

[Will Hung]

So are tax-payers now providing pleasure flights as part of the "Rehabilitation" process ?. I ask this because the PIC didn't seem to know that much about his passenger. If so, the world really has gone mad !!!

[Avitor]

Little snippets jumped out at me. On day release, convicted of drug smuggling, aeroplane, flight plan to Dover.

Then I said to myself, stop being paranoid. :ok:

[VFE]

And what would you suggest the PIC had done prior to the flight to make sure the passenger was not a prisoner on day release?

VFE.

[Justiciar]

It is easy to see how the media get things wrong. Just looking at this thread, we have the suggestion that the flight was funded by the tax payer (where does that come from?) and that the pilot "didn't seem to know that much about his passenger" (??); the reference to a "flight plan to Dover", whereas the news report says that the pilot "planned to fly to Dover". Admittedly the report also says that it was booked as a one hour flight with "air traffic control" - Rochester has a FISO and nothing more!

Will Hung, by the way, is the new official arbiter of whether you have a claim for injury or death which is morally worthy of being allowed to go ahead, or whether you should just keep quiet and suffer.

[poss]

Well we already know the media know barely anything of aviation, recent example being the greenpeace protest that supposedly happened on top of a 777 when infact it was an A320.

If I ever were to crash in someones back yard those people are definitely the kind of people i'd like to be the occupants!

[Will Hung]

Well I've clearly touched a raw nerve about the compensation. Perhaps Justiciar will be in contact !!!!

If you read the BBC link, before spouting off, it states "The pilot.....said he assumed the prisoner was out "legitimately". That strikes me as a statement by someone who is not that familiar with their passenger. You should also observe that the Tax payer funding was asked as a question, not made as a statement of fact. You should know the difference.

Glad you're not representing my business. Stick to the easy claims against insurance companies !

I just love the anonymity of the internet.

Happy Days !

[Justiciar]

Being out on "day release" (bbc article) seems to me to coincide pretty closely with the statement from the pilot that he assumed him to be out "legitimately" :ugh:. It would appear from that that his assumption was correct (the day release is subject to a variety of conditions - whether "no flying in light aircraft" is one I don't know). My point is: where from that does one conclude that the pilot did not know him?

There appears to be an assumption in your post that this is something other than a pleasure flight that went wrong. The media will be all to ready to jump to all manner of conclusions based on little or no evidence without the aviation community helping them out.

By the way, what is wrong with easy claims against insurance companies? :confused:

[Will Hung]

I am not assuming it was anything else at all. I believe it was a pleasure flight that went very wrong. Maybe I've put 2 and 2 together and made 5. But let's face it, they send teenage thugs on holidays, why not send this con on a "charcacter building" pleasure flight as part of his "rehabilitation" so that he doesn't feel "alienated from society". I'm sure there are some do-gooders out there who are capable of thinking of such c**p, and why not, the tax-payer can stump up the cash.

Angry of Watford.

[Flying Farmer]

Cummon WTF is going on when a VRF bimble ends up in trees!!

prior planning prevents etc etc etc :ugh:

[shortstripper]

It states the owner as Cynthia Reid ... wasn't she on the flyer list years ago?

SS

PS .... Just looked on the flyer forum, and yes she was/is :\ Bad luck Cynthia, sorry for your loss if you're reading this.

[airborne_artist]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7267333.stm

"A pilot whose light aircraft crash-landed in a garden in Kent has been arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis. Sid Clark, 47, of Tonbridge Road, Barming, near Maidstone, has been bailed pending further inquiries."


Seems he wasn't quite high enough :E

[Phil Space]

I'm afraid I'm with Will Hung on this one.

Whenever an incident like this occurs the press are always blamed for reporting the bad news. The pilot was a bit foolish taking a convicted drug smuggler on a flying trip. It now appears he has been arrested on drug cultivation charges.

Given the reported circumstances I think some will draw their own conclusions:hmm:
From the Kent Messenger
Plane crash pilot had drug habit
by Anna Stephens

THE pilot who took a convicted drug smuggler on a day trip before crashing in a garden has admitted being a drug addict himself.

Sid Clark, 47, from Barming, near Maidstone, said he became disoriented by low cloud during the short flight from Rochester Airport on Saturday and his Cessna 172 ploughed into a tree near Hythe.

But he denied having smoked anything before taking off.

His passenger Tim Des Vignes was on day release from Blantyre category C Prison in Goudhurst where he is serving a sentence for importing drugs.

Both escaped the crash with minor injuries.

He said: "I'm completely traumatised. We are lucky to be alive. I'm a serious pilot. I feel so embarrassed this has happened to me."

After Mr Clark told the Kent Messenger on Wednesday he had previously had a heroin, cocaine and ecstasy habit, police raided his Tonbridge Road home and seized 300 cannabis plants.

Mr Clark, who also said he was HIV positive, described Des Vignes, 53, as an acquaintance, "a friend of a friend."

He said he did not think he had done anything wrong taking Des Vignes, who had never flown with him before, on the hour-long flight from Rochester Airport in a loop over Dover.

He said: "I thought I'd give him something exciting to do because I had a plane booked for that afternoon anyway, so I said come along.

"He had to give his address and his name and that before he left which he did for insurance purposes. We did everything by the book."

Des Vignes is serving a sentence for importing drugs and was on a 12-hour formal leave of absence on the day of the flight, a gratuity normally granted to allow inmates to maintain ties with their families.

After treatment at Ashford's William Harvey Hospital, Des Vignes was taken to Maidstone Prison .

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed an investigation into the incident is underway.

Mr Clark is on police bail to reappear at a police station on April 23, while allegations of cannabis production and abstraction of electricity are investigated.

[squidie]

Looks like the Grim Reaper was after him.

[airborne_artist]

The couple whose garden the pair alighted in were pretty cool about the whole thing - had they been smoking something as well? :E

[vee-tail-1]

Clash of civilisations .. drug crazed maniacs meet Mr & Mrs Rupert Bear!
Hope if crashing, to end up in a similar garden. :uhoh:

[TheGorrilla]

Perhaps the day release prisoner was handcuffed? Have you ever tried to operate the yoke and throttle with handcuffs on???