Pilot nicknamed 'Biggles' jailed for 19 years
 

Pilot nicknamed 'Biggles' who smuggled £33.5million of cocaine via aerial photography business jailed for 19 years - Mirror Online

AFN

Is it any wonder some of the authorities call for further restrictions?

With these types within our our numbers consider ourselves lucky that we can still fly abroad without having to go to customs airports.

A pressurized C210 for aerial photography ? He's taking the piss.

I'm also curious as to where you get a P210 for £50K...

n5296s

Run the N reg on the FAA site, appears to be a bit uncertainty about the current ownership status

It would do, no doubt it has been confiscated by HM Customs and is pending disposal.

If you were in that business would you have just one aeroplane?:ok:

The a/c is for sale in N. Ireland, although the wings and tail plane are not attached.

Quite annoyed with the way that aircraft was confiscated. It was originally planned for it to go to Doncaster, an FAA holder friend of mine offered to ferry it to Doncaster for the police, but got turned down and the aircraft got disembled and shipped by road in the end. Was a beautiful aircraft, great condition. Full IR kit including weather radar and pressurised. All LED lights. Shame to see that its still in bits.

That aircraft doesn't need wings to fly. Just climb aboard and you'll be high as a kite.

They did the same thing with G-HOLA at Bagby. A very nice Dakota.
Plenty of offers to fly it to Doncaster. They ended up pulling it to pieces and carting it off on a trailer. Needless Vandalism. No less.:mad:

You've got to hand it to those drug smugglers with there IFR equipped P210's and Dakotas, They've got good taste and like nice kit.

The US drug cops would never destroy a prefectly good aircraft, they'd flog it off to the highest bidder and use the proceeds to buy more crime fighting equipment.

Having had the police and forensic scientists digging all around it maybe the authorities wouldn't let it fly for liability or airworthy reasons?

Does anyone know the process the police go through? I presume numerous panels will be removed and even inside the wings will be checked for drugs
Who does this ? do they use licensed engineers in the whole process?

Pace

The police have no intention of letting anything get in the way of them when investigating crimes, even if there is no pressing reason to do an inspection quickly they will just press ahead without any regard to the chance of recovering money by selling the asset.

So in answer to your question the chances of getting an aircraft engineer to help in the search of an aircraft are almost nil, they will just rip the thing apart and sell it as scrap once the investigation is finnished.

I even know of a case where the police and airline security department installed video equipment in the cargo bay of an airliner without any input from the technical department of the airline. This of course was a totally unauthorised modification that breached a fireproof compartment. The practice was stopped only when the equipment was discovered during the troubleshooting of an unconnected system, and the technical department removed the unauthorised modification.

If that is the case then the aircraft could not be flown out without a complete inspection by a licensed engineer and the relevant authorisations.
There would also be no valid insurance.

The other point worth considering is where the aircraft is seized? In a bigger airport its likely there would be hangers and even maybe a licensed maintenance unit but if its seized on some small strip there maybe neither.

To move it from its seizure point to somewhere more suitable for the police to inspect it would put any evidence found in jeopardy of being used as evidence even if a police pilot flew it to an inspection site.

So I am sure you are right. Once on the ground the police will regard the aircraft not as an aircraft but as a piece of ground bound hardware which might contain evidence and to let anyone remove that hardware police or otherwise would give a good case that the evidence had been tampered with.

After the inspection it would then be up to a licensed engineer to certify the aircraft for flight again

Pace

These :mad: pilots have no place in GA. They have rightly lost their assets.

Anyone who thinks they can pick up a cheap aircraft from the police proceeds falls into the same category in my opinion.

:mad:

Some of us lament the trashing of perfectly good aircraft for no good reason.
Nothing to do with picking up cheap aircraft.:ugh:


The Dakota was a lovely aircraft. It was gone over by a forensics team in a secure hangar. It was then stuck outside and left to the elements, before being pulled to bits and carted off. It was a travesty.


The operation which led to the aircraft being seized was an even bigger cock-up, but that's another story. Pats on the back, when a boot up the rear would have been far more appropriate. I'll stop before I say too much.

In some countries these aircraft would be destroyed on the spot or even shot down.
I have no sympathy whatsoever.

So 3wheels, where would you draw the line regarding trashing the aircraft?
Stearman?, Spitfire?, Bizjet?, 737? I can't get my head round your 'Blame the Aircraft' stance.


Frankly, as a lover of all things that fly, and a member of the RSPCA, I find your ranting offensive.

Just through interest does anyone know who meets the cost of putting the aircraft back into the state it was in before the examination if nothing is found and the suspicion is found to be false ?

Pace

One way or another, we do.

The owner voluntarily lost any right to that aircraft, beautiful or otherwise, the day he decided to become a drug runner.

Missed the point again mate.:D

Still not the fault of the aircraft, some of us have a great respect for the poor sod that built it, his creation etc. Shoot the pilot if you wish, but leave the innocent tools alone for someone else to use legitimately.
Inconsiderate thoughtless ranting.

Had a couple of queries regarding the relevance of my RSPCA membership.


Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Aircraft.:=

3 wheels

It is ridiculous blaming the aircraft. yes the pilot if found guilty deserves to be put away for a long time and this pilots greed and risk taking means he has got his due reward. Especially profiteering on the misery inflicted on many people who are addicted and ruin their lives through that addiction.

So no sympathy for him whatsoever

But consider another scenario where someone makes a malicious call to the police telling them that you were carrying drugs on a trip from abroad. They make this call just to cause you trouble for whatever reason.

Is it right you should have to pay for any rectification work required after an unlicensed examination of the aircraft?

Normally people are innocent until proven guilty.

In either case the aircraft is innocent and like others I feel its a crying shame that something which is considered a work of art and can give pleasure to so many is destroyed

Pace

Blaming an inanimate object!!!!!! Sheesh. Totally illogical.

Biggles in jail???
Dear Lord. Cap Com will never be the same again.
Who's gonna be next? Hoskins?

Im not blaming any "inanimate object" . Where did that :mad: come from?!

This man lost a valuable possession because he used it for drug running. It could have been a van, a car, a caravan etc. They would also have been taken apart.

Would we hear the same outcry?

The law is there to act as a deterrent. It does not and cannot differentiate between a nice boat/aeroplane and an old car...aww careful there lads this is a lovely aeroplane...

Get real.

3wheels

While I agree with you that I am delighted this crook has been put away for a long time as he was convicted of a nasty crime I do not agree with the police having the power to dismantle or examine an aircraft without a licensed engineer present to open areas which by law require a licensed engineer!

You did not answer my question ? Just imagine I had a gripe with you and without foundation when you were on a trip abroad called the police and told them that 3 wheels was on his way back and had drugs conceiled in the wings engine and inaccessible parts of your aircraft!

They would be obliged to act! Other than causing you a lot of hassle if a non licensed person opened up areas of the aircraft that had broken the regulations which could mean some considerable cost making it airworthy again!
Should you pay ???

Pace

HM customs practice
 

UK Customs operate a similar policy with regards to ships suspected of being used for illegal drug imports. As a shipbroker of 40 years standing, I know of several small ships that were ripped apart in the process of finding drugs. The smugglers are so ingenious in finding places to hide the drugs: eg welding them up in hollow inaccessible spaces of all kinds, that if the customs search respected the historical or aesthetic aspects of an aircraft or ship they would not be doing their job,however sad the outcome. Usually afterwards a ship is sold for scrap, as it cannot be put back together economically but one I know was used by customs as a static example to train operatives for future searches.

If the search finds nothing, in theory the customs have to pay to put it back together, but usually its not practicaltl possible and they just pay SOME compensation (eventually) .

3wheels,
Flying mac and pace picked up the same thought as i did from your post. The next owner of an aircraft put up for sale by HMRC Police or bailiffs will not be a bad person for buying it and from past experience unlikely to win a cheap aircraft.
Just had a flashback to John Cleese thrashing his car because it would not start. :-)

Pace...I think pettinger93 has elloquently given you the answers about innocent ships/aircraft/cars etc being searched.

I doubt these thorough, in depth, searches are conducted without extremely good prior intelligence being available. Not simply someone phoning with a "gripe".

The latter would result in a "meeting", I agree, and suspect they would then take it from there.

3Wheels

I think you have a lot of confidence in the police :ok:

Pace

The people who pulled the Dakota to bits said it was because it wouldn't fit in its allocated storage space without it being dismantled. Nothing to do with a search for drugs.

Shame, they ain't building any more Dakotas, the value destroyed pulling it to bits is probably more than 10 years of hangarage charges