I know the plane involved.
It was an early Malibu that was based in Spain and went to the UK about 3 years ago.
This is a FIKI equipped plane and should have absolutely no problem whatsoever to punch up to FL200 , above the weather.
Some press has FB posts with the pilot claiming to go for an ILS at Nantes on the first ferry flight, I think this suggest an IR rated pilot on IFR flight plan to France (you get invited to the tower and you fill a bunch of forms when you shoot an ILS in France while being a VFR pilot 
)
As usual, the Daily Trash gets the best dirt on the day
British pilot David Ibbotson, 60, (bottom right) checked into Nantes Atlantique Airport shortly before take-off after admitting to a friend on Facebook he had approached the runway ‘on the high side’ – but joked, tragically: ‘Better than on the low side’ (inset). Hours later at around 8.30pm on Monday night the plane carrying him and his £15million passenger Emiliano Sala (main picture) crashed into the Channel and both men are missing, presumed dead. Mr Ibbotson, who was also a gas engineer and wedding DJ, is understood to have flown Sala to Wales when he signed last Friday, back to France on Saturday and was at the controls during the ill-fated final journey back to Britain 48 hours ago. The plane was chartered by the family of one of Britain’s mega agents – Scottish-born Willie McKay (top right) – who had a hand in the £15million deal.
The word “charter” is not good… There may not be anybody for the CAA to go after but the insurers aren’t likely to pay out, which could do a “Graham Hill” to the estates of some people.
There is the inevitable misunderstanding like “The missing 1984 Piper Malibu aircraft is believed to be owned by an unnamed American who registered it with the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority using Suffolk-based company Southern Aircraft Consultancy.”. Well, they probably got the FAA trustee’s name (SAC) right.
should have absolutely no problem whatsoever to punch up to FL200 , above the weather.
Depends on the weather… if you collect enough ice, you won’t be climbing anywhere, and without an FAA IR, you can’t do so either.
The problem Michael is that the pilot wasn’t qualified to do that and given it’s becoming clear that the flight was in a legal grey area in the first place, I imagine he’d have felt a certain reluctance to do anything that might draw extra attention – like asking for clearance into Class A or just busting it and then dealing with the fallout afterwards.
Personally if I needed to climb into Class A to stay alive then I’d just do it. But if I thought my flight was illegal from the moment I started out, I might just be tempted to try a different solution (descending) first. The problem is that if you drop out of IMC at low level and the air around you is still pretty much at or around freezing then the ice doesn’t just drop off straight away.
I agree with dublinpilot that the call was probably from the ground and the comments refer to the general state of the plane rather than something actually happening. To anyone unfamiliar with general aviation but familiar with modern cars and airliners, any aging Piper looks like an absolute heap of junk – even if freshly painted. The investigation will easily be able to confirm this by checking the Whatsapp timestamp against the time of last ATC contact.
Peter wrote:
Well, they probably got the FAA trustee’s name (SAC) right.
I guess on purpose, flying an N-reg has to sound like a “panama paper” case to get many readers?
Ibra wrote:
Some press has FB posts with the pilot claiming to go for an ILS at Nantes on the first ferry flight, I think this suggest an IR rated pilot on IFR flight plan to France (you get invited to the tower and you fill a bunch of forms when you shoot an ILS in France while being a VFR pilot )
How do they know? If I cross the channel under a VFR flightplan to say, Dinard, and request vectors to the ILS then do they ask to see my license when I land? I’ve never tried it.
I usually try to take the ILS when arriving at any UK airport which has one, just for the hell of it. I have never flown on an IFR flightplan and no-one has ever in any way asked me to verify my instrument qualification (which is an IR(R)). Now I will get a load of UK instructors telling me that this is against the rules without an instructor or safety pilot. No it is not – I’m not training or flying simulated IMC – I’m just flying the ILS. There is no requirement that you have to be in IMC to fly the ILS, an assertion that is the logical conclusion of that oft-made argument on the UK training scene.
I imagine he’d have felt a certain reluctance to do anything that might draw extra attention – like asking for clearance into Class A or just busting it and then dealing with the fallout afterwards.
Yes exactly, Graham, one insurance loss adjuster told me they pay out on most things (which most people think they don’t pay out on) but they don’t usually pay out where a flight is illegal before departure.
OTOH this flight was probably legal at the time of the departure. Well… as far as the airframe and pilot licensing went, and that is all that any airport police would examine. And very few airport policemen would know about the EASA IR + N-reg + country interactions. What would appear to be not legal is the charter aspect, but nobody would find out about that if the landing was successful. It is the same argument as [what would have been in years past] illegal cost sharing… post-landing, there is almost no risk.
If I cross the channel under a VFR flightplan to say, Dinard, and request vectors to the ILS then do they ask to see my license when I land?
The French would not do that, unless you do something to draw special attention. It is normal to fly to say LFAT on a VFR FP and then ask Lille for an IFR clearance and vectors to the ILS. I’ve done that loads of times. You just need to allow good time, not 5D before the IAF
Even the charter aspect would be almost impossible to prove illegal, would it not?
Even if the charterer did not know such a thing was illegal, the pilot (and almost certainly the aircraft owner) would have known. They would have ensured there was no written record of any arrangement, and agreed that if ever questioned on the matter they would say that no money changed hands. Private flight with friends / acquaintances. Done as a favour to a mate. Implausible perhaps, but how can anyone prove otherwise?
Imagining most of the impending doom scenarios, I still feel the Tx button being pressed and even a partial ‘mayday’
If however I was Stressed, IMC, trying to get visual, in poor viz, black of night, over a black sea, could I miss the unwinding altimeter?
I think I definitely could.
That scenario wouldn’t allow me a ‘mayday’
Just something I’m pondering.
