This happened to me recently. Diverted to Biggin instead of Shoreham, from the IOM.
ATC told me to see the police office.
No idea if there is one at Exeter but probably yes given the commercial flights.
Generally, expect police attention after any diversion from abroad especially if from the CTA or centres of crime like Spain or Netherlands (not kidding, they are not very sophisticated)! For obvious reasons, diversions are a popular smuggling tactic.
No idea if there is one at Exeter but probably yes given the commercial flights.
That’s the homebase of FlyBe (http://www.flybe.com/route-map/). They offer direct flights between Exeter and many European destinations. I’ve been there several times and customs and immigration were always at the field.
Any UK airport which has scheduled services abroad will be swarming with police officers; probably armed.
If you divert there, you will very likely get a quick look-over with a passport check. They will likely be waiting for you by the apron as you taxi up and park 
The tower will get a notification of the incoming diverted flight via the AFTN, the instant you tell enroute ATC (anywhere in Europe) where you are diverting to, and they will tell the police.
This is not the same in France where some airports become deserted 30 mins after the last Ryanair flight departs. I recall finding myself at e.g. Poitiers, airside, and couldn’t get out. Through the locked glass doors I could see a cleaning lady sweeping the floor. I think somebody in the aeroclub eventually let me out.
At Biggin Hill there used to be a hole in the fence next to the Air Touring hangar but that is now blocked. There is a security gate there now, with a phone number on it to call to get an access code – except the phone number belongs to a person not at all connected with the airport who is really sick of getting irate phone calls to get the gate open 
If I file a GAR on the basis that I might go to Exeter I may be wasting a lot of people’s time.
I believe Border Force correlate GARs with (activated) flight plans. Quite a few will be filed for flights that are never flown (eg due to bad weather) and so ignored. I don’t think you’d be wasted anyone’s time.
So if you filed Exeter as an alternate destination, with a GAR for that, then when you proceed to your original destination you would be OK. But if you did divert, then there would be no cause for “special attention”.
Any UK airport which has scheduled services abroad will be swarming with police officers
This sounds like if you do need to divert on return to UK, then better to go into one with scheduled services? I’ve always put an alternate that’s got a tower/AFIS, sometimes ATC, but not necessarily scheduled passenger services. I don’t know what the consequences would be or even if there is a central number to call. Presumably it wouldn’t be a good idea to leave the airport until you’d spoken to someone in authority either in person or on the phone.
GAR with non EU-citizen
I have a (pilot) friend who will be visiting me from the US, so we’ll probably go flying somewhere.
Is there anything to watch out for with the UK GAR system if you’ve got a non EU-citizen on board? She will have already been through UK immigration on the way in, and (well, at the moment at least) I’m not planning any flights outside of the CTA, so it’ll be IOM-somewhere-in-UK type of stuff (the somewhere-in-UK might not be a designated field for Special Branch if it’s not going to cause a problem)
Up until 2 weeks ago I did not have a UK passport…just my Australian and I just completed the GAR as usual and have never had any issues into and out of France – most recently to EGBO after hours….(I now have both passports)
However, just to add….I had a visa for Indefinite Leave to Remain and so was able to lawfully enter the UK…I guess a normal tourist would need to get a visit visa on arrival and so would necessarily need to land at an airport with UKBA personnel… The first time I flew back into the UK (at Lydd) I was in fact met by UKBA….possibly one they have established your visa status they don’t need to meet you on subsequent re-entries…or am I assigning too much intelligence to the system?!
OK guys, another new GAR form plus guidance document is out now (as I said, it seems they’re now on a two-month cacle for doing things all over again… )
- the aircraft type is now a free-entry field again (no drop-down list). Pilots of C172s can now use the GAR again…
- they now say that illegibile handwritten forms will be rejected. Well, who would’ve thought of that? It obviously doens’t mean that handwritten forms will generally be rejected (but, to be honest, the new form makes it almost impossible to do make it leggible if completed by handwriting…)
- they now make it very clear that forms sent to the NCU will also be copied to the relevant police station (a big step forward). Makes onlinegar a bit less valuable again
- they now also give proper directions to the authorities of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands regarding “their” GAR requirements. Why didn’t they include Ireland for example?
All in all, it gets more and more messy each time they come up with new documents. The guidance document alone is now 12 (!) pages long…
I have to say I found it amusing that the times of departure and arrival are to be specified to the second. HH:MM:SS
I was running about 5 hours late on my last return flight to the UK due bad weather!!
It is helpful if emailing the form to BF does sort out notifying the relevant police force, even if (in my view) the need for that has long since disappeared. It was always a faff trying to figure out who else to inform.
I have been using the OnlineGAR service, and I have to say it is great. Not that anyone appears to pay a blind bit of notice to it, but I fly off, happy in the knowledge that I have done my duty for King and Country.
Err Queen and Country
