Pilot fined after landing helicopter in village car park
 

from this report

A helicopter pilot banned from taking off until the chopper he landed in a village car park in an emergency manoeuvre was checked out was fined after he ignored the instruction.

Christopher Kiley, 57, was flying to Monmouth on March 14 when he feared an engine problem after the clutch light came on.

He landed his bright red ’copter on an unused car park at the end of Station Road, in Treorchy, Rhondda, instead of following protocol and landing it on a playing field just metres away, before walking to the nearby CK Stores to make an emergency call to his engineer.

Following a telephone conversation, he went back to the helicopter ready for take off after completing the necessary inspections but by that time the police had arrived, landing their helicopter close by.

The Civil Aviation Authority also got involved and following a discussion Kiley was banned from taking off until they deemed the craft fit to fly and issued a notice to that effect.

Simon Emslie, prosecuting at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority, said: “He was told not to fly the helicopter out.”

He said that the defendant’s engineer had tried to make contact with him to tell him not to fly the machine.

“But the defendant had done exactly what he was told not to do by signing the notice [to say the craft was fit to fly] himself.”

The court heard that Kiley, of Caswell Bay, Swansea, had not wanted to leave the helicopter where it was for fear of damage being caused to it.

The court heard he had endangered the lives of the people living in Treorchy because if there had been a problem with the engine the helicopter would have just dropped “like a brick” and there would have been no way to land.

Martin James, an investigator with the Civil Aviation Authority, said: “He put his own interests before the people of Treorchy.”

Kiley, representing himself, said that he had made the “split second decision” to land on the car park because of the troubles he knew would result in recovering the helicopter from an enclosed playing field.

Kiley, who has flown planes since 1982 and helicopters since 1993, said he had never been in trouble before and his licence had been suspended since the incident.

“I was stupidly overcome by the real worry that if I left the helicopter there overnight it would have been completely vandalised,” he said.

“I had visions of it being completely wrecked.”

Kiley admitted failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a direction when he appeared at Pontypridd Magistrates Court and was committed to Merthyr Crown Court for sentence.

Judge John Curran fined Kiley £2,000 and ordered him to pay £3,873.19 costs with a £15 victim surcharge within 28 days.

additional note - The press report did not note that Mr C Kiley is the proprietor of "C K Stores" mentioned - corroborated by this report

Yes, that is what helicopters do if the clutch fails, or the engine, or the tail rotor..."they drop like bricks" :ugh:

I was actually waiting for those exact words to appear in the report while I was reading through it. It should be made mandatory for News Reporters to read up on how to operate / fly aircraft and what they will do in emergencies so they can get their dam wording right in the likes of these reports.

Would it be fair to assume that is the owner of the nearby CK Store, especially after reading the linked article.

As an outsider reading between the lines....I suspect there never was anything wrong with the helicopter. Seems to me like he landed to check on his business and someone complained, hence he fabricated the "maintenance issue"

.
The phrase "No sh*t Sherlock" springs to mind!

Caught trying to play the loaded executive. :ugh:

Hmmmmm

Can't see the problem personally !

Joel :p

That is funny if he did own the store.

If not, seems wrong to reprimand him to that extent. Im not from the UK though.

yet another depressing use of public resources (but an amusing tale!!)

On the other hand, if there was nothing wrong with the helicopter and he just wanted to check his shop then surely he would have used the adjacent playing field? Was he actually, as he stated, considering the possibility of a road recovery?:confused:

a quick check on google shows lots of the areas around there had a ck store


We currently operate 22 stores located in Llandeilo, Pontyberem, Newcastle Emlyn, Penclawdd, Gwaun Cae Gurwen, Cwmbwrla, Sketty, Cimla, High Street ( Swansea ), Gowerton, Cwmllynfell, St Davids, Fishguard, Hakin, Waunarlwydd, Birchgrove, Bargoed, Aberystwyth, Treorchy, Ladywell Centre (Newtown) Dyfatty (Swansea) & Llandysul.

Hardly. The fine and costs awards should be a very welcome contribution to the [largely fixed] cost base of the UK justice system.

TT

Hmmm
 

I notice the reports don't say who owns the 'unused car park'.. Private or council?

Maybe he had the err owners permission to be there? (I'm guessing not but hey ho).
Maybe due to local knowledge he knew the land was unused and therefore less -or no -chance of there being stray public in it?
Whilst it would appear to be open to public access (Plod certainly managed to park right next to the helicopter) there is nothing in the report suggesting the site wasn't actually suitable for landing into in general.

Rightly or wrongly he chose the nice smooth tarmac/concrete space with road access - possibly and/or arguably the better choice than a potentially sloping, grass field with god knows what hidden under the grass etc, had he gone for the 'safe' field who know's if the thing wouldn't have clipped trees or rolled on a dodgy sloping, boggy ground etc landing.. Not knowing the area but faced with the choices I think many of us may well have made the same choice, but stuck with it, played the hero and waited for the man with the spanners to say it was ok and fly out again... He might not have got into trouble then!

What I can't undertand is how plod simply didnt just park his van close enough that he wouldn't have been able to spin the blades, voila he's imobilised the poorly heli...

Had the poor chap owned the car park I'd have loved to have seen the outcome then, would they still have been able to prosecute? (I guess they'd have found something) To me it sounds like a certain element of jealous envy - rich guy landing nr his supermarket - we don't like it, lets make sure he doesn't do it again.

In typical Pprune fashion though, where were the claims of avoiding schools / hospitals etc with the about to fall from the sky doomed R44...

A small point of order but according to the report, the 'plod' also arrived by helicopter:

Point of order..
 

Bravo73, I agree the text of the news story states the police arrived by helicopter (However no mention of where they 'parked' theirs other than close by) however, a photograph in the linked news stories clearly shows a police van and car parked to the side of the R44..

I guess the real question for us pilots is, what was he actually charged with...

Landing where he did, endangering the public, breach of rule 5 etc etc.

or

Illegally? making a declaration with respect to the airworthiness of the A/C and flying it away when instructed not to do so?

(Not quite sure what 'law' would have been broken here tho, he apparently suspected a fault, using the knowledge surely imparted by having an R44 type rating he determined that the suspected fault wasn't present, so took off again - I must go re-read my air-law books to see how a common police officer [or anyone else who's not a:a licensed engineer or b:CAA, EASA or Robinson] can revoke the CofA of an A/C until visited by 'said licensed engineer)

If.........

He declared a "small technical problem" so he could land next to his shop then he is an idiot, but I doubt that.

No wonder the country is broke.... :{

Can't recall my UK CAA airlaw, though FAA and SA CAA air law states if a landing is made as a result of a declared emergency, which gives the pilot autthority to land anywhere, including restricted areas, the aircraft can not be moved unless cleared by the relevant accident investigation authority, e.g. NTSB.

Technically not in FAA world----one has to have an "accident" at which point NTSB 830 rules apply and you cannot move the wreckage.....In the scenario of a "precautionary landing" there is no such rule....unless of course I am mistaken....?

Has anyone looked up the reg on ginfo? On there it says the helicopter is owned by someone else entirely. All very odd.

Syndicate, co-ownern, holding company, operator, friend, proxy, family, etc. Could have many reasons, certainly not odd.

I had to go down on a hill in Germany a few years ago (was transiting over Germany from Switzerland) because the LHS door popped open. Later back at base I checked what would have been the correct action taken for Germany, and made a note of exact location, time, etc, just in case someone comes knocking on my door. Turns out I'd have had to introduce myself to the owner of the land (how'd I ever find out who owns the hill??), leave my contact details, the details of my insurance in case they found out later I caused damage, but after that I would have been free to take off again. Some German pilot I spoke to later that day told me he'd have also called local police, just to tell them everything is fine and where to reach him. If I'd have gone by the (German) book, passengers would have had to leave in a taxi until I figured out what to do and where to find the right farmer for my hill, just to leave my contact details.