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UK small airfields defenceless against small aircraft says Judge.
Judge says small UK airfields are 'defenceless' against people traffickers as he jails Lithuanian pilot for smuggling in three illegal Albanian immigrants | Daily Mail Online
Good story here about small aircraft landing at Seething (appropriate name in these times). Granted there may be more to the case than reported here but doesn't or cant the RAF track low flying aircraft coming into England from Europe? Historically we were a bit hit and miss but I would have thought in these days we could do it, shurely? Is this embarrassing to the people who are responsible for our UK air defence system? |
I've been to Seething - it was deserted and very rural.
Next they'll be suggesting we, oh I don't know, build houses on all these small, defenceless airfields to stop them being used by smugglers |
I once had the job of driving around North Wales for the day trying to identify potential landing strips for small aircraft infiltration.
Let's just say I logged quite a few. |
What sort of low level cover is available from Neat?
Oh, I forgot, we closed Neat |
Neatishead was the CRC. The radar at Trimmingham is still in place and in use.
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They could always bring back the ROC :E
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During my many years at Eastern Radar (RAF Watton, Norfolk, for the uninitiated] we always kept an eye out for random light aircraft from the Continent. Our T82 radar would occasionally pick up contact that the ponderous 4 rpm T84/T85 at Neatishead wouldn't see, especially close in to the coast.
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At least in the 1990s, the Immigration Service (as was, now UKBA) did have a policy of visiting farm strips and the like, maintaining a database of locations, tapping up locals, and asking them to keep a discreet eye out.
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From the 1978 edition of Airfields of the Eighth:
Kimbolton hit the headlines in November 1971 when an abortive attempt was made by a Syrian pilot, Rafiq Kalos El Jassen Ashour, to land four Indians and one Pakistani from a Piper Cherokee. On 28 November 1971, the local farmer, Mr. Raymond Convine, saw the aircraft standing on the airstrip. When he got close, he could see the pilot was masked whereupon he rammed the plane with his pick-up truck. When Ashour tried to escape, Mr. Convine went after him armed with a spanner, the masked pilot stopping several times during the chase to offer the farmer a £1000 bribe to forget the incident! When Ashour escaped with two men who had been waiting for the aircraft, Mr. Convine returned to the five illegal immigrants who were taken into custody. A Terence Black was subsequently brought to trial in March 1973 and found guilty. At the time of the trial he was already serving an 18 month prison sentence in Glasgow, to which the Northampton Crown Court added three years for conspiring with others to evade the control of Commonwealth immigrants and two years for making arrangements to facilitate the entry of illegal immigrants into the UK. His brother Raymond, believed by the police to be the ringleader, had previously died in Paris in August 1972. Ashour escaped and was not brought to trial. The incident sparked off an intensive check of all the disused wartime airfields in the East Anglia area and farmers and airfield owners were warned to be on the look out for aircraft landing in suspicious circumstances. Measures to combat the landing of illegal immigrants by plane still continue today (1978) and we were stopped by police during our visit to Framlingham airfield. The Directorate of Military Survey has also restricted the loan of wartime airfield maps... |
I once had the job of driving around North Wales for the day trying to identify potential landing strips for small aircraft infiltration. Let's just say I logged quite a few. The radar coverage of the UK coastline has never been really good since the Type 54 CHEL stations were shut down in the late 1950s and since then, the coverage towards France at low level has been non existent. The AD system from 1960 through to 1968 was aimed at dealing with reconnaissance threats to the V-Force (not attacks on as they would have been stand off or ballistic in nature). After that, Linesman which tried to interrogate the AD and high level ATC system (and failed), Followed by UKADGE, IUKADGE and UMCP which has just been replaced. Since 9/11 there has been a major improvement in low level coverage with the introduction of a number of military ATC radars into a networked feed into the CRC's known as AIRP. https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/sea...x?ID=AUG150943 However having the intelligence is useless if there is no way to catch them in the act and they are really only interested in somebody who is not flying to a flight plan. |
...the local farmer, Mr. Raymond Convine, saw the aircraft standing on the airstrip. When he got close, he could see the pilot was masked whereupon he rammed the plane with his pick-up truck. If, these days, farmers habitually rammed all light aircraft in which pilots wore balaclavas, there would be an a awful lot of squashed microlights. |
And...??
>>>>>>> |
It were difficult enough in the 60s getting a customs officer to a military airfield to meet a prenotified flight, especially when two arrived at the same time at adjacent airfields. Of course we never did that deliberately :)
I think at the time most of them were at Akroitiri :( |
No doubt someone did a 'cost-risk' analysis at some point. Our 'defences' are still primarily poised to detect and intercept foreign high-level bombers coming to drop their load - not low-level light aircraft coming to drop foreigners!
Cost to counter that 'threat' would be huge I'd guess. Suppose some of the 'gucci' anti-ISIS budget could be diverted but you'd need to lever it from the agencies with shiny buildings in London to do that. |
Originally Posted by BEagle
(Post 9635476)
From the 1978 edition of Airfields of the Eighth:
One wonders whether such vigilance remains in place today...:hmm: Aerial Views Of UK Airports & Airfields |
Wonder if it was 'tax free ciggies' they might try harder
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Some years ago, I was holidaying in a cottage just off the end of the runway of a disused world war 2 airfield (Dale) in Pembrokeshire. During the night (it was a full moon) we heard an aircraft overhead, and the following morning had a visit from the police asking if we had seen or heard anything. They would not tell us what they suspected, though the word in the village was that it was a drugs drop. We never heard any more.
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Flying over disused Greek airfields in Crete we saw lots of oil drums arrayed down the runway. In UK though there are so many WW2 airfields still with suitable runways that blocking them, and seeing they remained blocked, would be near impossible.
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I guess most small harbours and river estuaries around our coasts are similarly defenceless.
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Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator
In UK though there are so many WW2 airfields still with suitable runways that blocking them, and seeing they remained blocked, would be near impossible.
I think you'd be surprised at just how relatively few remain with any suitable runway. |
Such flights do happen on occasions and a number of the perpetrators get caught due to prior intelligence gained by the authorities. This link highlights a similar illegal immigrant flight that was monitored by the police with a successful outcome.
Immigrant smugglers caught after sky chase - Telegraph |
GeeRam, very true, Woodhall Spa runways are only suitable for float planes now and East Kirkby is now shorter and grass. Spilsby has disppeared under sheds. Metheringham and Manby are intact.
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PN,
Manby is most definetly NOT intact! Runways and all taxiways dug up and removed and tower demolished years ago. Metheringham is also only hanging on with vast swathes of concrete lifted. |
Metheringham was perfectly usable for an illicit light aircraft last time I drove down it. Manby has a perfectly suitable taxiway. Then there is Stubby too.
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Strubby 33 (?) doesn't look well ... it wasn't even used for taxying in 65 :)
But, agreed, light aircraft can get into all sort of small places, whether they have well-maintained landing surfaces or not. |
Presumably closed borders following brexit will sort this problem?
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Man-carrying Drones can't be far away !
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Presumably closed borders following brexit will sort this problem? |
Why cant we monitor lower airspace for potential intruders more effectively? Like many have pointed out above we face not just low flying aircraft, but now UAVs, or drones or paragliders or whatever.
Is it that difficult? Is it cost against likelihood? Granted we couldn't do the whole UK but how about from the Lizard to the Wash, or Humber even? Also what do the Israelis do? They must counter their threat somehow. |
That airfields list gave me a nasty touch of nostalgia.
Looking down the list.......... served there on posting, served there on detachment, did a course there, tught there, did an inspection visit there, was a passenger from there/into there, got my kippers from there, drove past that in its heyday ............... sic transit. |
HS, the difficulty we now face is exactly the same weakness that the Soviet Union faced 50 years ago and they reinforced their air policing with missiles. Remember Mathias Rust, now if anyone should have been intercepted it was he.
Now supposing we were warned of the departure of a light aircraft from Europe and were able to observe it approaching the UK at low level, then what? Would we scramble a QRA Interceptor? Let us supposed we decided that option was too expensive and instead were content to track the aircraft overland. We see it alight at some farmer's strip or disused airfield - or even an active RAF airfield out of hours (it has been done) - now what? We notify the civil police who send a car hot foot to the landing ground. Would they be in time? They can't stop hare coursers so what chance immigrants? |
The Big Picture
Compared to the thousands of unprotected beaches, harbours, and quiet inlets that make up the UK the 'Airfield ' issues are small,and are in the main 'overseen' by users and the unofficial control of Spotters. who are quite expert at noticing strange happenings anywhere.
With precious few resources available for control of 'strips' and former military fields it is up to the GA fraternity to assist where possible, and ensure we keep our 'freedom' which is of considerable benefit to us all. As for 'contact' with authorities if there is something to report do not mess about with e-mail or pay for numbers just do the 999 bit, it still works amazingly well, and response times can be very good when needed.The authorities are stretched and we need to protect the freedom we enjoy; its a win win situation. |
Why cant we monitor lower airspace for potential intruders more effectively? Like many have pointed out above we face not just low flying aircraft, but now UAVs, or drones or paragliders or whatever. Is it that difficult? Is it cost against likelihood? Granted we couldn't do the whole UK but how about from the Lizard to the Wash, or Humber even? |
I operate a light aircraft from a former WW2 airfield that has been deemed by the authorities as being " high risk " for illegal activities, just the fact that the authorities have considered the possibility shows that they have an eye on the situation.
There is far more monitoring of these sites than is obvious to the casual observer. Aircraft spotters are an unusually good source of information for the police and should not be underestimated, it should be remembered that it was the spotters who some time back alerted the police to an illegal entry to LHR......... not airport security. |
W. E Johns wrote about this problem several times in the 50s and 60s. Those of us who grew up reading "Biggles" will remember many such stories.
Not a new problem, but with modern aircraft maybe a bigger problem than Johns envisaged all those years ago. |
Used to cycle up to nearby Seething as a teenager. We found mouldy belts of live machine gun ammunition in one building. It was never absolutely deserted, but we avoided contact with anyone as there was a feeling of no-man's land about the place.
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There was a Naval operation to report Warsaw Pact Shipping. There was a Freephone number for the spotters. Whilst 999 would work for the general public, for the aware a direct Freephone number would be good too, especially for after the event calls.
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MPN 11
Strubby is an active twin site airfield with a well maintained 700m tarmac runway and two grass strips one glider one fixed wing. James Bond (Daniel Craig) has a (not so) secret strip not so far away!!!!! There must be half a dozen private strips within 20 miles of Strubby. |
Daily Mail are still cracking on about similar, and how they flew into blighty without much in the way of checks or hassle.
Where there's a will there's a way, like all things. SUE REID exposes how Britain's many small airfields are vulnerable to terrorists | Daily Mail Online Goodnight. |
Spotters
A and C Said
"I operate a light aircraft from a former WW2 airfield that has been deemed by the authorities as being " high risk " for illegal activities, just the fact that the authorities have considered the possibility shows that they have an eye on the situation. There is far more monitoring of these sites than is obvious to the casual observer. Aircraft spotters are an unusually good source of information for the police and should not be underestimated, it should be remembered that it was the spotters who some time back alerted the police to an illegal entry to LHR......... not airport security." I've heard tales about their ability to track aircraft and esp unusual types around the UK in practically real time and also their vigilance with regard to remote old strips. Are there any other examples? Should point out I'm not a journalist and just for curiosity |
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