More bad publicity for UK GA in the press today
Thread Starter
More bad publicity for UK GA in the press today
All the UK tabloids carrying this story today suggesting UK private pilots tempted by big cash.
Former UK Border Force boss Tony Smith quoted....
‘Some migrants are prepared to pay more to guarantee getting to the UK. It costs a lot of money to run a small aircraft.’
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/413379...-uk-aircraft/#
Smugglers flying migrants into UK 'and charging £900 for GUARANTEED entry' | UK | News | Express.co.uk
Former UK Border Force boss Tony Smith quoted....
‘Some migrants are prepared to pay more to guarantee getting to the UK. It costs a lot of money to run a small aircraft.’
Smuggling gangs charging up to £900 a seat to fly illegal immigrants into the UK as two British pilots are arrested ‘for flying in 14 Albanians’
* Feared hundreds of migrants are planning to use planes to enter the country
* British pilots arrested after allegedly trying to fly in 14 Albanians from Holland
* Their aircraft is one of at least three that has been stopped by officials
Approximately 30 airstrips in the South East are thought to be particularly vulnerable to smugglers, because they have no protection from over-stretched border officials.
Read more: Gangs charging £900 to fly illegal immigrants into the UK | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
* Feared hundreds of migrants are planning to use planes to enter the country
* British pilots arrested after allegedly trying to fly in 14 Albanians from Holland
* Their aircraft is one of at least three that has been stopped by officials
Approximately 30 airstrips in the South East are thought to be particularly vulnerable to smugglers, because they have no protection from over-stretched border officials.
Read more: Gangs charging £900 to fly illegal immigrants into the UK | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Smugglers flying migrants into UK 'and charging £900 for GUARANTEED entry' | UK | News | Express.co.uk
Last edited by Mike Flynn; 31st Jul 2017 at 08:00.
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I'm going to be one unhappy camper if thru the actions of those greedy traitorous mofo's that instead of doing my usual Rennes or Jersey straight back to the farm on a GAR with a short mobile phone chat with my local border cop, I'm forced to check in with border officials at a major airport with all the associated landing and handling fees not to mention the added time and inconvenience. I'll be friggin raging.
Thread Starter
I'm going to be one unhappy camper if thru the actions of those greedy traitorous mofo's that instead of doing my usual Rennes or Jersey straight back to the farm on a GAR with a short mobile phone chat with my local border cop, I'm forced to check in with border officials at a major airport with all the associated landing and handling fees not to mention the added time and inconvenience. I'll be friggin raging.
The Breighton drug smuggler even had the cheek to use 55EU
Sounds like the usual Mail/Sun thing, find an isolated extreme occurrence and report it as the norm, depending on what the Government or Rupert Murdoch wants to cut that week....
Thread Starter
I am sorry to say this is not an isolated incident Andy. Not every UK pilot is flying just for the fun of it or the £100 cup of tea. There is a great temptation for some to fund flying from the black market.
Here is an ITV report from Feb 2017.
'Respectable' pilot who smuggled cocaine worth millions is jailed | Meridian - ITV News 
At the end of May this year the Liverpool Echo ran this report.
Men who plotted with Merseyside pilot to smuggle drugs over the channel in a hire plane jailed - Liverpool Echo
Here is an ITV report from Feb 2017.
'Respectable' pilot who smuggled cocaine worth millions is jailed
A pilot caught with his trousers down smuggling cocaine worth more than £2.4 million into the UK has been jailed for 23 years.
Dutch national John Buwalda hid behind a respectable business front to bring bags containing 48lb (22kg) of high purity cocaine in a light aircraft from the Netherlands to Kent's Rochester Airport in June last year.
Recorder Oliver Sells QC said theirs was a "professional, commercial, international smuggling enterprise" which was "executed with great precision".
Buwalda was caught on CCTV landing his light aircraft at Rochester then going to and from the plane with a suitcase, before checking into a nearby hotel.
Officers then watched as Polish national Polak got two sports bags from his van and went up to divorced father-of two Buwalda's hotel room for the handover.
As he walked away carrying two full sports bags, Polak was arrested by officers from the joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service Organised Crime Partnership (OCP).
Hotel staff told officers Buwalda had arrived earlier that day with two suitcases but checked in for the day only, as he had done several times before.
NCA officer Jim McMorrow told the trial how he arrested Buwalda while he was sitting on the toilet.
The Old Bailey was told the drugs, which were found to ha
A pilot caught with his trousers down smuggling cocaine worth more than £2.4 million into the UK has been jailed for 23 years.
Dutch national John Buwalda hid behind a respectable business front to bring bags containing 48lb (22kg) of high purity cocaine in a light aircraft from the Netherlands to Kent's Rochester Airport in June last year.
Recorder Oliver Sells QC said theirs was a "professional, commercial, international smuggling enterprise" which was "executed with great precision".
Buwalda was caught on CCTV landing his light aircraft at Rochester then going to and from the plane with a suitcase, before checking into a nearby hotel.
Officers then watched as Polish national Polak got two sports bags from his van and went up to divorced father-of two Buwalda's hotel room for the handover.
As he walked away carrying two full sports bags, Polak was arrested by officers from the joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service Organised Crime Partnership (OCP).
Hotel staff told officers Buwalda had arrived earlier that day with two suitcases but checked in for the day only, as he had done several times before.
NCA officer Jim McMorrow told the trial how he arrested Buwalda while he was sitting on the toilet.
The Old Bailey was told the drugs, which were found to ha
At the end of May this year the Liverpool Echo ran this report.
Men who plotted with Merseyside pilot to smuggle drugs over the channel in a hire plane jailed - Liverpool Echo
Two men who conspired with a Merseyside pilot to fly cocaine and heroin across the channel in a rented light aircraft were jailed.
Wayne Coates, 49 and Jamie Sharples, 30, had been due to collect a delivery of class A drugs from Southport pilot Philip Molyneux. Coates travelled to meet him at an airfield near Clacton, Essex on the morning of 31 October 2012.
However, Molyneux, never made the rendezvous. He had been picked up by French customs and police in Abbeville airfield prior to take-off. French officers found 12kg of cocaine and a kilo of heroin in a bag in his plane. The French had been tipped off after British authorities noted suspicious activity involving the aircraft, which was rented from a firm in Blackpool.
If cut and sold in the UK the haul would have had a potential street value of over £1.5m.
Following his arrest the French authorities found calls and messages on Molyneux’s phone from numbers which were later linked by the National Crime Agency to Coates and Sharples. One, from Coates, said “Ring me Phil, what the f*** going on?” Another from Sharples stated “Get bk to me asap”.
Wayne Coates, 49 and Jamie Sharples, 30, had been due to collect a delivery of class A drugs from Southport pilot Philip Molyneux. Coates travelled to meet him at an airfield near Clacton, Essex on the morning of 31 October 2012.
However, Molyneux, never made the rendezvous. He had been picked up by French customs and police in Abbeville airfield prior to take-off. French officers found 12kg of cocaine and a kilo of heroin in a bag in his plane. The French had been tipped off after British authorities noted suspicious activity involving the aircraft, which was rented from a firm in Blackpool.
If cut and sold in the UK the haul would have had a potential street value of over £1.5m.
Following his arrest the French authorities found calls and messages on Molyneux’s phone from numbers which were later linked by the National Crime Agency to Coates and Sharples. One, from Coates, said “Ring me Phil, what the f*** going on?” Another from Sharples stated “Get bk to me asap”.
Last edited by Mike Flynn; 31st Jul 2017 at 18:59.
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But the "check in" for flights to and from Europe is simply filing a GAR online with skydemon etc. and a call to the cops where their primary concern is smuggling drugs, people and money etc. it does not involve diverting to a location where the cops are based. For flights to Ulster I just stick a note in with the receptionist at the cop shop in the town while I'm picking up my morning coffee prior to departure so again not an expense or major inconvenience. The primary focus of the Ulster flight notification is I believe to indentify those who may like to sing Fields of Athenry with a tad too much gusto and conviction.
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We did allow to let paper rule over humanity and we are on the move to even further pass it on to a digital automation world we don't understand. We are the last to complain over bull**** brainless zombies sitting in the offices of certain news tablets or even official authorities - WE let them grow.
Stop whining, do something against.
Stop whining, do something against.
Thread Starter
I think the answer is get used to the idea that a quick trip to Europe may soon get a lot slower and expensive.
No 10 says free movement ends when UK leaves EU - BBC News
No 10 says free movement ends when UK leaves EU - BBC News
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First step, emulate the yanks where if you want a broadcast license or significant media ownership the law says you must be a citizen. That would send Murdoch packing to whatever nation he has now sworn allegiance to this week. And stop billionaire Ruskie oligarchs control of our press and airwaves.
Second step: political campaign finance reform, where political donations can not be sent directly to the party or candidate but to a 3rd party ombudsman who logs receipt then publishes online the donors name, address , amount given, recipient and running totals of any prior donations, prior to forwarding the funds to the intended recipient.
Step Three: lobbyist registration and public meetings, any trade , industry or idealogical lobbyist/interest group requesting a meeting with an elected individual or government department head must make the meeting request publicly and submit a proposed agenda and all lobbyists meeting must be minuted and published online with 48 hours.
That'll do for a start 👍
Second step: political campaign finance reform, where political donations can not be sent directly to the party or candidate but to a 3rd party ombudsman who logs receipt then publishes online the donors name, address , amount given, recipient and running totals of any prior donations, prior to forwarding the funds to the intended recipient.
Step Three: lobbyist registration and public meetings, any trade , industry or idealogical lobbyist/interest group requesting a meeting with an elected individual or government department head must make the meeting request publicly and submit a proposed agenda and all lobbyists meeting must be minuted and published online with 48 hours.
That'll do for a start 👍
Project Pegasus is an initiative I'd hope we all (Less Jetblu...) support, but has nothing to do with ChickenHouse's post.
Reform of media ownership and political change are not something any individual can "do".
So, again, what specific "something" does ChickenHouse want I individuals to do?
Culminating on an internet forum is all very well, and whiles away an hour or two, but if you are railing against people not doing what you think they should, then tell them the details of what it is you think they should be doing.
Assuming you know the answer. It is easy to complain. Less easy to solve.
Reform of media ownership and political change are not something any individual can "do".
So, again, what specific "something" does ChickenHouse want I individuals to do?
Culminating on an internet forum is all very well, and whiles away an hour or two, but if you are railing against people not doing what you think they should, then tell them the details of what it is you think they should be doing.
Assuming you know the answer. It is easy to complain. Less easy to solve.
Thread Starter
Well if you go down that road Piperboy what about N reg aircraft in the UK and Europe often registered to obscure Delaware organisations? The reason criminals like N reg aircraft is the lack of supervision in Europe by the FAA.
I can't register my UK car with an American plate so how come non US citizens can register an aircraft that is based in Great Britain or Europe with the FAA?
I can't register my UK car with an American plate so how come non US citizens can register an aircraft that is based in Great Britain or Europe with the FAA?
I have long struggled to understand why the CAA and now EASA allow non US citizens to fly US registered aircraft here for years. I suspect it is done by some owners to save money and cut corners on maintenance and oversight.
Indeed I can think of at least two cases where that was privately admitted.
Sadly I suspect we will all find private air travel falling under more suspicion.
Indeed I can think of at least two cases where that was privately admitted.
Sadly I suspect we will all find private air travel falling under more suspicion.