People threatening aircraft

[heli1]

We all know instances where individuals have been threatened for shining lasers ,air rage and the like but are there any instances anywhere where someone has been successfully prosecuted for deliberately putting obstructions in the take off path ,for example parking their car or putting a barrier up ?
I know major airports like Heathrow are officially safeguarded ,which presumably means obstructors can be prosecuted ( although I've never heard of it happening but a lot of smaller ones...and helipads.... seem to be less so.
The CAA view seems to be "pilots should avoid and could be prosecuted themselves if they take off knowing the obstruction is there ".

[GyroSteve]

Air rage

There have been a few cases where balloonists have been attacked on landing - sometimes assaulted by farmers, sometimes by the local populace (in the latter case usually with an eye to relieving the occupants of camcorders etc).

It never happened to me, but I did have one incident when I landed in a park and things got quite lively when it turned out that the "children" playing on the swings were, shall we say, older and more boisterous than I had anticipated. Fortunately the police turned up and the "youngsters" ran off and started chasing the police car ......

I had thought it would be OK because there were some old boys playing bowls on a green next to where I landed. Once I was on the ground I realised that the fence around the green wasn't chain-link it was razor wire!

[krypton_john]

Do paragliders count?

Man attacked by boys from troubled-youth scheme - 24 Oct 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news

[r44raven]

I seem to remember a balloon pilot who set down outside Sheffield where he and his passengers were mugged by a group of the local ferals. He complained that he'd flown across Africa, Australia, pretty difficult and remote terrain, and the locals had always been courteous and helpful wherever he'd landed. Then he came to Chapeltown....

Keep it in mind the next time you want to take the JetBanger to Meadowhall

[vintage ATCO]

I know major airports like Heathrow are officially safeguarded ,which presumably means obstructors can be prosecuted ( although I've never heard of it happening

The Safeguarding process is there to prevent new buildings being put up that penetrate various obstacle surfaces. Up to the mid 90s the Local Planning Authority would refer applications that would penetrate such surfaces to the CAA but this was then devolved down to the individual airports. All the airports could do (and the CAA before them) is object to the LPA. If the LPA decided to permit the development and thus adversely affecting the airport then they would then have to ask the Minister to call in the application for consideration. Never happened in my experience (I was responsible for Safeguarding at Luton for a number of years).

What the Safeguarding process didn't pick up on was the cranes needed to build the new building and in my experience crane companies would often supply the biggest soddin' crane they had on their books. There isn't a law to prevent someone putting a crane up even right on the final approach. There is a British Standard that says crane operators should consult with an airport opertaor if they wanted to raise a crane within a certain distance of an airport (4nm I think) above the surrounding trees and buildings. Most didn't in my exprience. All you could do, as SRG told me, is to threaten them with Article 73 (Endangerment) and being criminal law ask a policeman to intervene. I tried the threatening but not the policeman.

Same would apply to airfields and strips not safeguarded and unlicensed. You could say 'If you put that obstacle there you are contravening Article 73 and I will inform the police'. Not too sure what the police would do however! Obviously to mitigate the 'danger' you can opt not to operate and my fall back was to suggest we would sue for compensation of £10,000 an hour (a figure I plucked out of the air at one meeting with a local company who had put a crane up with no consultation). It worked.

[floppyjock]

Hi folks

This link may answer a few questions. We dont mess around up here.

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Man fined over runway wrong-turn

Floppy

[Cusco]

VATCO:

Please would you pm me the full title of article 73 :i.e.which part of ANO or whatever to allow me to look it up and further to allow it to be quoted in correspondence to someone who might be a perpetrator..

Thanks

Cusco.

[Flying Lawyer]

Air Navigation Order 2005

PART 5: Operation of Aircraft

Endangering safety of an aircraft
73. A person shall not recklessly or negligently act in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft, or any person therein.

[B.U.D.G.I.E]

obstructions to aviation

If there is one thing that hets in the way of aviation that will never come before a court. I'ts the CAA.......

[birrddog]

I recall an incident in South Africa (could not find it via google search) where a local TV presenter was not allowed to board his international flight (he may have been late) and decided to block the aircraft by parking his own plane in front of the flight he was not allowed to board.

I think this could have been pre-1998. Cant seem to find it on the inter-web. perhaps some Saffa Rotorheads recall.

Of course I could also be speaking total bollocks, it is early for me.
(TV Presenters name withheld in-case it is bollocks)

[Robbo Jock]

I did read some years ago of a chap in America who modified a Piper Cub to film him taking off towing a glider (front seat removed, camera stuck in there pointing at pilot and, over his shoulder, the glider) (or something like that - it was a while back).
The airport operator objected to what the guy was doing and told him he couldn't take off from there with those modifications. Pilot decided to do so anyway, so airport operator parked something (his car?) across the runway to deter him. Undeterred, the Pilot went for it but slammed into the side of the car.

Pilot successfully sued airport operator for ensuing damages and injuries. Don't know/recall if any criminal charges got involved.

Just found a reference to the accident in a law book via Google: Fundamentals of Aviation Law. The Pilot (or, rather, his family) actually sued Piper.

[chevvron]

I remember a case in the PFA Magazine about 12 years ago. Established private strip bordered a neighbouring property so takeoffs or landings had to pass over this property.
Property changed ownership and new owner immediately erected poles on his property about 30 ft high just off the end of the runway. The article included a photo of the end of the runway showing the poles which were clearly a 'hazardous' obstruction.
Strip owner objected on the grounds of Art 73 (Art 65 in those days if I remember), but in court I think it his plea failed as although it was an 'established use', it was an unlicensed airfield.

[winchman]

Yorkshire Air Ambulance got pelleted with stones at a Leeds hospital landing site last year by the local scrote bags...

[heli1]

..And therein lies the rub Chevvron...there are many established airfields and helipads around the UK that are not licensed .Some are safeguarded with the local planning authority but some are not but all seem vulnerable to this kind of deliberate activity unless thre has been a precedent somewhere ,where a judge was sympathetic.

[FC1]

Many moons ago I was looking after pleasure flying with a JetRanger at the Bristol Balloon Festival. We had been exceptionally busy and were approaching a time when we needed to stop flying (duty hrs) when a group of four lads asked if we could squeeze them on before we stopped, which we did, getting them on the last flight of the morning. When they landed they got off, thanked us for the flight and disappeared into the crowds.

As I started tidying up the interior ready for the next session I discovered the scrotes had knifed all the seats and sliced through all the rear seat belts.

We had their names on the manifest but guess what?