Light aircraft down close to Popham

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18 years 2 months

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Reports just coming in via the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30666201

Original post

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24 years 2 months

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Fingers crossed.

I know too many people who fly from Popham.

Moggy

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18 years 2 months

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The initial reports do not sound too good I'm afraid; fingers crossed for the survivor that has been reported.

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18 years 11 months

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Another Forum reports that it is not a Popham based aircraft Moggy. RIP for the victims.

2 fatalities, aircraft type unknown at this stage.

R.I.P.

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20 years 3 months

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I can confirm it was not a Popham-based aircraft. Popham also had no contact with the aeroplane but did see the accident and were able to assist in getting the services to the crash as soon as possible. The Hampshire and Isle of Wight air ambulance was on scene in 8 minutes from the first emergency call.

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20 years

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This is a horrible start to the year.

This is meant to be a hobby, and people should not lose their lives, nor children be orphaned.

We will ( of course ) ' wait for the report ' but collectively we need to look at the decision-making process that so often takes a fully serviceable aeroplane to disaster, in a non-hostile environment, and with no imperative to fly.

I am not talking of punishment or condemnation, but understanding and education. Commiserations are not enough.

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Pioneer 400, G-CGVO

Very sad with the child orphaned.

Moggy

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14 years 9 months

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Yes it's sad, but should also make people angry that these parents have taken such risks. I was at Cox Green yesterday attending a model railway exhibition. Normally I would have gone on to White Waltham but I didn't go, assuming as I did that nobody would be airborne because of the weather.

Regards

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12 years 11 months

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Chaps, there's no need for introspective analysis. The simple truth is that every time we take to the skies we're in a hostile environment. Hostile for a variety of reasons.

We can explain it only by remembering that 'ess aitch one tee happens' and will go on happening.

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20 years

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Yes, it does make you angry, or something pretty close to it. Upset certainly.

There is simply no need to fly in bad weather like we saw over the last two days in the South East. It was hardly a scenario when one is ' caught out', sometimes the METARs and TAFs are so bleak there should be no decision to be made.

This is a terrible event, for GA, for Popham, for the LAA, and most important, for a family shattered and a child orphaned.

We need to take more responsibility for each other, as a community. I wonder how many missed opportunities there were on the 3rd Jan, for other people people to interject and break the chain.

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20 years

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A cannot disagree more strenuously. ( replying to John Green)

We are not feathers blowing in the breeze. We make decisions, and they have consequences.

Fatalism and complacency have no place in flying, and if that is the best we can do we should pack it in.

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12 years 11 months

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I made no reference to complacency and fatalism. When does intrusion and interference become "responsibility for each other?" I don't know. Perhaps you would tell us. It would certainly help me, I mean it.

How many times have you prepared for flight in a somewhat fifty fifty situation when, with your experience you could equally have gone or stayed on the ground and then looked to see another pilot getting his a/c ready in the same conditions that made you pause. You don't know his experience. Did you, would you, stroll over and mention your forebodings? My guess is, there aren't many who would.

When we fly; when we sail small sailboats; when we skydive; when we climb mountains and do the dozen other activities which can offer at least equal odds of death or injury, we are entering an environment which isn't ours naturally. It is hostile and if nasty things happen they usually end in catastrophe.

Propstrike, your anger at something that might have occured as a consequence of mechanical failure or over confidence is very tangible. Don't let your anger corrupt your commonsense. It isn't only in flying that people very often exceed their capabilities and will continue to do so despite training and good advice.

I wonder how the boy is doing? Must be living with a relative?

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18 years 11 months

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George Tonkinson, now aged seven who lost both his parents in the crash was initially flown to Southampton Hospital and then transferred to a Birmingham Hospital. He is probably now living with his mother's ex-husband and his wife together with half brothers and sister.

I'm off on a bit of a tangent here but the deceased must have been his mother and stepfather and now he is living with his biological father.

As far as the crash is concerned I can only say "Don't trust to luck", meaning among other things, don't take chances with weather.
The guy who did my radio licence course when I was doing my PPL back in 1982 was nicknamed "The *******".
He put the fear of God into us about flying in adverse weather without the appropriate experience.
Over the years I lost several acquaintances who didn't listen, some of them had quite a lot of flying hours.

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18 years 11 months

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I'm off on a bit of a tangent here but the deceased must have been his mother and stepfather and now he is living with his biological father.

The elder children are 20 and 27, so I assumed that her second marriage produced George?!

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Very sad to loose both parents. Best wishes to him.