Light aircraft down off Essex coast 3 June 2009
 

Just reported on Meridian News that a light plane en route from Cambridge to Lydd has been reported overdue and a search is taking place off the coast of Essex.

BBC also reporting missing aircraft
 

BBC now reporting a civilian two seater ,Cambridge to Lydd, gone missing at Mouth of Medway river near Sheerness at 1100 BST. RAF Wattisham Sea King apparently has been scrambled.

Fingers crossed he/she/they managed a successful forced landing and we see a happy ending to this thread.

How strange! How did they know it was "overdue"? Was a flight plan filed? On a flight from Cambridge to Lydd? Surely not. Did a friend raise the alarm?

I can understand an aircraft disappearing in mid-Atlantic. On the Kent coast - no not really? Did it head out to sea and then get into trouble?

Hopefully the pilot decided it was a lovely day and is enjoying a night out in France oblivious to all the fuss back home.

Dont nee to file a flight plan to be reported overdue!!!!.....maybe they were recieving a "Basic Service" from London Information,they could have passed an eta for Lydd to London fbut maybe contact was lost with the flight and the aircraft never arrived.....?????

From the BBC report:
"They said the plane was last heard from through its GPS navigational equipment at midday, just north of Sheppey. "

Do you think they mean its transponder? Would hardly call that GPS equipment?

Sounds to me as though the numpty press are confusing GPS with the sophisticated data reporting systems on board airliners, and just highlighted by the Air France loss over the Atlantic

...or they could be referring to a McMurdo Fast Find which gives out a GPS position as well as an Emergency signal.

Absolute rubbish! don't know how this happened. The aircraft was on a test flight from Cambridge for a permit renewal which I had just done. It landed safely but not back at Cambridge and at no time was in any trouble,but the pilot didn't let any one know about his change of plan
.I don't know how this all came about. The authorities have been informed.End of panic! :ugh:

<<the pilot didn't let any one know about his change of plan>>

Does he have to?

Rule 17 doesn't require it.

So I guess he notified Cambridge that he intended to return there, and didn't.

I dont know the circumstances in this instance but if you book out local, but decide to land away without letting the tower know, is there any surprise they might be concerned if you have not shown up within three hours or so of departure.

I hope someone has told the authorities that this aircraft is safe. BBC News suggests the alert is still on.

It's completely and utterly beyond my comprehension that a pilot should cause an airfield to be informed of his planned arrival, then change his mind and not warn them - if that really is the case this time. But I've seen it happen more than a few times... resulting in police turn-outs, searching of hangars in the middle of the night, etc.

BBC NEWS | England | Missing pilot flew to Switzerland

BBC News are reporting the pilot landed in Switzerland! If that's true it will be hefty bill for the unnecessary SAR!

I just hope that this incident doesn't result in more restrictive regulations for VFR flight in the UK.

enuff said. hem, hem..

Hard to believe this one:rolleyes: The obvious question would be how one arrives in Switzerland, a non EU state, without a flight plan after traversing the whole of the Republic of France? I think there may be more to come from this story! Anyone have info on the reg or pilot? A quick nav box tells me its over 450nm cambridge dct lydd dct geneve! Does a Longeze have that sort of range with reserves, wind etc?

Overdue
 

Molesworth said:
Raises the question if you PPR somewhere ( no flight plan filed),does the intended field start an alerting procedure whether they are A/G,AFIS or APP/RAD/TWR?

MM

I'm not sure I am understanding this post?:confused:

Damned amateur AGAIN!