Reckless pilot to jail
 

Some really reckless flying results in jail time:

Sask. pilot gets 9-month sentence in N.W.T. death - Saskatchewan - CBC News

The text is:

A Saskatchewan pilot has been sentenced to nine months in jail for his role in a fatal airplane accident in the Northwest Territories.
Parker James Butterfield, 24, pleaded guilty last year to dangerous operation of an aircraft in connection with the May 20, 2010, incident that killed William James John Bleach, a friend and fellow pilot, in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/ph...-bleach-fb.jpgWilliam Bleach, seen in an undated photo, died days after the May 20, 2010, incident in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., where he was struck in the head by the wing of a low-lying light plane. (Facebook)The sentence was handed down Monday afternoon in a Regina courtroom. The Crown had asked that Butterfield serve as much as 18 months in jail, but a Queen's Bench judge sentenced him to half that much time.
The judge has also banned Butterfield from flying for two years.
"I'm devastated," Bleach's mother, Marilyn Bleach, told reporters outside the courthouse.
"I was hoping that there would be a longer-term incarceration, I really did. And I am shocked that he doesn't lose his licence."
Bleach, 26, was standing on the tarmac of the local airport with a video camera, filming a single-engine Cessna 207 that Butterfield was flying, when he was struck by the wing of the low-flying aircraft.
Transport officials have said the aircraft's right wing clipped Bleach's head. He died in an Edmonton hospital several days after the incident.
At the time of the incident, Butterfield and Bleach were working in Fort Good Hope for North-Wright Airways Ltd., which flies people and freight between eight remote communities in the Northwest Territories using a fleet of 21 small aircraft.
In sentencing, the judge said Butterfield is remorseful and poses a low risk to reoffend. At the same time, jail time is warranted for operating an aircraft dangerously, the judge ruled.

Flying low enough to hit someone in the head with the wing of a 207 is quite an achievement - means that the wheels were less than a foot off the ground, in fact more like a few inches unless the victim was a giant.

I'm guessing it was banked.

That's even worse, banking into a person instead of banking away to avoid... that makes it look almost intentional.

Huh?? Did he not see it coming??

I find it hard to visualise how this happened, with Bleach watching the 207. Were they both playing chicken?

Like the incident at Husbands Bosworth, the videoing was pre-arranged.

From the way I read the report, it was a pre-arranged filming of some low flying that went badly wrong. Perhaps he was banking the aircraft close to the ground to try and get a shot of a low pass.

Either way, I'm surprised how short the sentence is. What would be the sentence for causing death by reckless driving?

These days it seems a few weeks - and suspended

In the UK: Sentences for causing death by driving

See page 11 of the document for causing death by dangerous driving.


FL

Pre-arranged filming risks:-

a) Pilot pushing the limits "showing off" to the camera

b) Cameraman divorced from reality/sense of danger because he's seeing it happening through a viewfinder.

The famous "f*** me, f*** me" video of a well known presenter being surprised by a very low flying Spitfire is a great laugh, but illustrates the problem. The margins were not great and the cameraman didn't even duck.

cjboy
Precisely. :ok::ok::ok:

An important point that's often overlooked.


FL

astir 8
The margins were greater than they appear to be on the video.
Given who was flying the Spitfire, I wouldn't have ducked.


FL

Flying Lawyer

And he is so sadly and badly missed

At least 20 feet I believe.

Have you ever seen the pic of Ken Ellis flat on the ground at Bembridge after the same individual, P-40 mounted, came in low for the finish during the Schneider Trophy one year?

Edit: just to say that the P-40 was quite high by the usual standards of his low passes - but Ken was probably just playing it safe!

Didn't an aircraft landing on runway 25 at Shoreham once hit a pedestrian walking on the perimeter road?

It's more auspicious to risk being hit by a Spitfire?

A pilot can care about the safety of others, and obviously demonstrate that in the way they fly...

A pilot can not care, and be oblivious of other's safety...

Or the pilot can be overtly reckless, and point a plane at another person. If driving, it would be "dangerous driving", a criminal offense in Canada.

Whenever I hear a pilot say "watch this" it causes me concern.

I would think that deliberately aiming a car (or plane) at somebody would be a lot more than "dangerous".

You can get done for "dangerous" driving without any evident intent to harm any specific person.

Pilot DAR I was referring to the pilot, not the aircraft.


He did.


FL

In this instance, I shall not disagree, or agree....

So you're sitting on the fence doing what?:confused: