Two killed in A109 near Bournemouth - AAIB report published
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Clowns, my comments were aimed at some who read this forum and who had telephoned me with what they believed to be information on this. Sorry if my defence of Max bothered you (well I'm not sorry actually) but then as you say you didn't know him. Some of us did though.
HeliEng. I've not heard yet but hope it's soon, for all concerned.
HeliEng. I've not heard yet but hope it's soon, for all concerned.
Jet Blast Rat
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Sorry you lost a friend in Max, Flintstone. Defending him is fine, as long as you don't do so with misinformation that could be taken as fact by the press and public. Prejudging enquiries is exactly what we complain about in press coverage of aviation, we must avoid it in our own comments.
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Max's funeral
Dear All
I've just been speaking to Max's mum and dad this afternoon and his funeral will be on Friday 16th April at 12:00.
Out of respect for Max, I thought it best not to post the details here. Please send me a private message or email if you'd like the details.
I hope you understand.
I've just been speaking to Max's mum and dad this afternoon and his funeral will be on Friday 16th April at 12:00.
Out of respect for Max, I thought it best not to post the details here. Please send me a private message or email if you'd like the details.
I hope you understand.
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one9two9
You must obviously do what you think is proper but, unless the funeral is for family and invited friends only, it might be helpful to post the venue here. Max was obviously very popular in the helicopter community.
You must obviously do what you think is proper but, unless the funeral is for family and invited friends only, it might be helpful to post the venue here. Max was obviously very popular in the helicopter community.
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Heliport
You're right, he was really well respected and his parents had asked me to post the details on this site. I thought it might have been better to have people contact me individually, but after your comments I realise that there are numerous people who'd like to pay their respects. It makes more sense to post the details here:
The details are as follows:
The service will be held at the Bournemouth Crematorium near Charminster on Friday 16th April at 12:00. There will be a get together after the service at the Queens Park Golf Club in Bournemouth.
Max's dad has asked that the funeral is for a celebration of Max's life and as such, does not expect people (although it is at their discretion) to wear the standard black tie. Max would probably want us all turning up in shorts and T shirts anyway!
Max's dad has also asked that instead of flowers, could people please give donations to the RSPB (in respect of all things flying).
At last we can all get together and give him a great send off.
You're right, he was really well respected and his parents had asked me to post the details on this site. I thought it might have been better to have people contact me individually, but after your comments I realise that there are numerous people who'd like to pay their respects. It makes more sense to post the details here:
The details are as follows:
The service will be held at the Bournemouth Crematorium near Charminster on Friday 16th April at 12:00. There will be a get together after the service at the Queens Park Golf Club in Bournemouth.
Max's dad has asked that the funeral is for a celebration of Max's life and as such, does not expect people (although it is at their discretion) to wear the standard black tie. Max would probably want us all turning up in shorts and T shirts anyway!
Max's dad has also asked that instead of flowers, could people please give donations to the RSPB (in respect of all things flying).
At last we can all get together and give him a great send off.
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I hope all went well at Max's funeral today.
I and some others were going to attend however not being church goers and being pretty certain Max wasn't either (no offence intended to Max's family) we decided that we would say our farewells in our own way, in the air.
Vale Max.
I and some others were going to attend however not being church goers and being pretty certain Max wasn't either (no offence intended to Max's family) we decided that we would say our farewells in our own way, in the air.
Vale Max.
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The rumours continue
The mystery continues... Channel 4 did a 6 minute piece on Friday about Curtis - Max's passenger (see their website). This also appeared in The Independent...
Russian tycoon's British lawyer 'was a police informant'
By Adrian Gatton
25 April 2004
The secretive British lawyer behind the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky became a police informant only days before he died in a mysterious helicopter accident, it was claimed last night.
Stephen Curtis, who helped run the Russian billionaire's huge financial empire, was killed last month when his six-seater Augusta 109 crashed in a field near Bournemouth.
Hundreds of people attended the funeral in Dorset, including Boris Berezovsky, another Russian oligarch and a political opponent of President Valdimir Putin.
New evidence casts doubt on the circumstances of the death. A high-level police inquiry is attempting to establish whether the crash really was an accident.
Mr Curtis was an informant for the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) in London, Channel 4 News claimed last night, but had spoken to his handler only twice before he was killed.
Mr Curtis ran Menatep, the company that controls the oil giant Yukos. He was a close confidant of Yukos's former boss, Mr Khodorkovsky, who has fallen foul of President Putin and has been charged with fraud and tax evasion.
Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) officials have said they are keeping an open mind, and that piecing together the wreckage could take months because of the ferocity of the explosion.
Last November, as the key players in Yukos were either jailed or on the run, Mr Curtis became managing director of Menatep. The appointment was meant to put a key executive beyond the grasp of Russian officials.
Mr Curtis, of whom no photograph has been seen until now, was born in Sunderland in 1958 and studied economics and law at Aberystwyth University. He was employed as a clerk at Chester Crown Court before joining international law firm Fox & Gibbons, where he built a network of Arab clients in the Gulf.
At Fox & Gibbons he worked on a strategic oil deal between a Russian oil company and the United Arab Emirates. In 1994, he set up his own Park Lane practice, Curtis & Co, but left in 1998 as he became more involved with Menatep. Mr Khodorkovsky was so impressed with his work that when the oligarch was jailed last October, Mr Curtis was brought out of the shadows to become the boss, controlling $30bn of assets.
In the weeks before the accident, death threats against him increased and he was convincedhe was being bugged by the Russian authorities and business rivals. He said he was planning to sell his London apartment because it had become too well known.
Just how central he was to Yukos is shown by documents seen by Channel 4. In 1999, for example, he drew up the structures for Yukos's offshore oil trading business, giving it control of the companies while disassociating from them in a way that would save it disclosing taxable sales to the Russian authorities.
Since then, Yukos has been hit with a $3.5bn tax bill and has been the target of a concerted attack by President Putin, apparently keen to neutralise an over-mighty oligarch. The company, whose Moscow offices were raided again last week, has been barred from selling or transferring its assets. Mr Khodorkovsky, who denies charges of fraud, is expected to go on trial in Russia in June.
Russian tycoon's British lawyer 'was a police informant'
By Adrian Gatton
25 April 2004
The secretive British lawyer behind the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky became a police informant only days before he died in a mysterious helicopter accident, it was claimed last night.
Stephen Curtis, who helped run the Russian billionaire's huge financial empire, was killed last month when his six-seater Augusta 109 crashed in a field near Bournemouth.
Hundreds of people attended the funeral in Dorset, including Boris Berezovsky, another Russian oligarch and a political opponent of President Valdimir Putin.
New evidence casts doubt on the circumstances of the death. A high-level police inquiry is attempting to establish whether the crash really was an accident.
Mr Curtis was an informant for the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) in London, Channel 4 News claimed last night, but had spoken to his handler only twice before he was killed.
Mr Curtis ran Menatep, the company that controls the oil giant Yukos. He was a close confidant of Yukos's former boss, Mr Khodorkovsky, who has fallen foul of President Putin and has been charged with fraud and tax evasion.
Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) officials have said they are keeping an open mind, and that piecing together the wreckage could take months because of the ferocity of the explosion.
Last November, as the key players in Yukos were either jailed or on the run, Mr Curtis became managing director of Menatep. The appointment was meant to put a key executive beyond the grasp of Russian officials.
Mr Curtis, of whom no photograph has been seen until now, was born in Sunderland in 1958 and studied economics and law at Aberystwyth University. He was employed as a clerk at Chester Crown Court before joining international law firm Fox & Gibbons, where he built a network of Arab clients in the Gulf.
At Fox & Gibbons he worked on a strategic oil deal between a Russian oil company and the United Arab Emirates. In 1994, he set up his own Park Lane practice, Curtis & Co, but left in 1998 as he became more involved with Menatep. Mr Khodorkovsky was so impressed with his work that when the oligarch was jailed last October, Mr Curtis was brought out of the shadows to become the boss, controlling $30bn of assets.
In the weeks before the accident, death threats against him increased and he was convincedhe was being bugged by the Russian authorities and business rivals. He said he was planning to sell his London apartment because it had become too well known.
Just how central he was to Yukos is shown by documents seen by Channel 4. In 1999, for example, he drew up the structures for Yukos's offshore oil trading business, giving it control of the companies while disassociating from them in a way that would save it disclosing taxable sales to the Russian authorities.
Since then, Yukos has been hit with a $3.5bn tax bill and has been the target of a concerted attack by President Putin, apparently keen to neutralise an over-mighty oligarch. The company, whose Moscow offices were raided again last week, has been barred from selling or transferring its assets. Mr Khodorkovsky, who denies charges of fraud, is expected to go on trial in Russia in June.
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This will be the basis of a superb film. If made by the Brits it will be awesome. If made by the Yanks it will be complemented by some pretty girls but not very factual. Those Mexican girls would make ideal screen fillers once released from jail.
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I just received the tragic news about Max. My thoughts are with his family and friends. I was lucky enough to share a flat with him in the US working at Resort Aviation flight school in Lakeport CA. And I will never forget him. He was always full of laughs! It is sad that he has left us.
Rumour by name........
A birdie tells me that the Agusta 109 that was involved in an 'accident' in the first quarter of this year down near the south coast and which was manned by a lawyer 'allegedly' linked to the russians....might not have hit wires after all. In fact it might not have even been an accident 
The plot thickens...........
The plot thickens...........
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TC,
Were have you and your birdie been, they decided the next day that it had NOT hit the wires.
The aircraft was not manned by the lawyer , he was a passenger- " allegedly linked to the Russians" well seeing as he was Chairman of Menatep, it goes without saying he was linked to the Russians!
Also you shouldnt believe everything you read in the papers, the times article last week was full of inaccuracies, I guess that is what prompted the fresh post on the subject?
Regards
Hovver Bover
Were have you and your birdie been, they decided the next day that it had NOT hit the wires.
The aircraft was not manned by the lawyer , he was a passenger- " allegedly linked to the Russians" well seeing as he was Chairman of Menatep, it goes without saying he was linked to the Russians!
Also you shouldnt believe everything you read in the papers, the times article last week was full of inaccuracies, I guess that is what prompted the fresh post on the subject?
Regards
Hovver Bover
A newspaper full of bum poop? Ah, go on....tell me it ain't so!
Hover: a little fast off the mark, I believe. When I said manned I meant 'on board' as in "...the a/c was manned by..." 
.
Not read in the papers, but gleaned much closer to home.
He was 'allegedly' on a hit list for upsetting some business colleagues over seas.
His family were allegedly under threat.
He had a terminal illness...(allegedly) with weeks to live ironically.
...and the last 27 seconds of the ATC transmissions were very very interesting reading...allegedly!
It seems the pilot was a very sad victim in all this...........
. Not read in the papers, but gleaned much closer to home.
He was 'allegedly' on a hit list for upsetting some business colleagues over seas.
His family were allegedly under threat.
He had a terminal illness...(allegedly) with weeks to live ironically.
...and the last 27 seconds of the ATC transmissions were very very interesting reading...allegedly!
It seems the pilot was a very sad victim in all this...........
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I would be interested to hear the tape of the last 27 seconds. I had flown with Max a few weeks before the accident in the 109 he seemed to know the aircraft quite well, and explained that as often as he could he would couple the autopilot and allow the aircraft to fly the ILS, but complained of several EFIS screen failures in poor weather apparently this had been "sorted"
I have also been told by a friend of the Curtis family that Stephen was not a well man.
I have also been told by a friend of the Curtis family that Stephen was not a well man.