(And I think the pilots might not have been that innocent – there is no way that for instance the captain on an airliner gets busted for one of his passengers smuggling drugs / sex trafficking / contraband)
From the above article:
Dominican authorities say they were preparing to take off in a mid-size Dassault Falcon 50 jet with 26 suitcases carrying 680 kilograms (1,500 pounds) of cocaine.
26 suitcases is going some for a Falcon 50… there are film stars etc which travel with that much stuff but they would have a bigger plane then 
This is a difficult problem for flight sharing – or more generally carrying any passengers you don’t know. If say you carry 2 people, both with 30kg backpacks filled with some hard stuff, you probably genuinely won’t suspect anything, but if you are accused of complicity it will be equally hard to convince anybody. For sure you will lose the plane for probably a very long time, or worse.
As regards those swords, I don’t think they are illegal to carry. IANAL but if something is legal to possess without any license (and swords are) then they are ok to carry in your plane without a license. Similarly guns and explosives are legal to carry in your plane too if you have whatever permit is required to possess them, and many GA pilots carry guns, in the UK and everywhere else – subject to the conditions in their permit. Whether you will be able to get the stuff on and off the plane is a different story
I brought a huge wood chopping axe back from Biarritz a few years ago in the Aztec. Arrived at the airport and they told me after checking first that I could take it on board my plane but it had to go through the scanner. Not sure what they hoped to check on the scan unless they thought it was some sort of hollow object carrying something else but in that case why would I use something quite so visible. The look on the faces of the French tourists who were queuing for a flight back to Paris as I passed them in the queue carrying a huge axe over my shoulder was priceless. It was almost as good as when we walked out on the apron and had to pass by a queue of passengers boarding a flight via the stairway. They must have thought I was getting on board!
Noe wrote:
Why no out of curiosity? I do tend to use GA for all the (otherwise legal) things that are annoying to transport
Depends where you land and if the airport has a GA terminal/door (e.g. aeroclub), otherwise you may have to go trough the same pax flow as CAT
Surely, you can take anything legal you want in your aircraft but not at the time when using the same queue line as airliners passengers, I had some experiences at Bergerac/Norwich while departing at the same time as CAT where things went a bit slowly, but still faster than the refueler who was busy with Ryanair…so it is rather how you get the thing in/out of the aircraft in big airports at the same as CAT, otherwise I don’t think it is an issue or just leave it in the aircraft 
Ibra wrote:
we had to carry two swords in a C172 while flying UK to France…As PIC of that flight, I just say no and did not bother
Why is that? What’s illegal with carrying swords? I’m involved in Iaido (Japanese martial art with swords). My club regularly go to training camps abroad and bring the Real Thing with us. We have to check the swords as special luggage because of their size. The airport staff think it is fun when they go through the x-ray machine, but there’s never been any hint of problems. (And yes, after September 11, 2001.)
@ibra I don’t think the ceremonial sword from the école polytechnique, the military school whose students provided the honour guard at this wedding, qualifies as a weapon :-) It’s known as the “tangent” because it must be worn parallel to the red lines of the uniform trousers, and is completely unable of inflicting harm on anything harder than butter (assuming said butter has been taken out of the fridge early enoug).
And for completeness, this is not a revival, these guys are students of the school marrying one of their own. The uniform does date back from the early XIX th century but if you ever fancy watching the 14th of July parade, you will see it at the head of the marching troops.
The students used to wear their trouser braces on top of their jackets, which made an “X” on their backs and gave the school its colloquial name, X.
Sorry for going on a tangent, couldn’t resist
denopa wrote:
Sorry for going on a tangent, couldn’t resist
I did not want the x-ray security guy telling me “Monsieur, la tangente c’est un peu limite” (equivalent to a joke in the GCSE math exams )
Airborne_Again wrote:
Why is that? What’s illegal with carrying swords? I’m involved in Iaido (Japanese martial art with swords).
I don’t think the point is legal or not, just expect delays to get it out/in, you can bring them in CAT in the hold as most tourists do when coming from Japan
JohnR wrote:
I brought a huge wood chopping axe back from Biarritz a few years ago in the Aztec
That looks more like a Super-Cub pilot souvenir, Aztec pilots tend to bring stock piles of wine bottles
Disclaimer: my comment has to do with the shape of the luggage compartment than pilots taste/personality
This has just popped in my email: https://www.airaffaires.fr/
This sounds like another variation of the theme, with some interesting angles, but with the same legality issues e.g. most flights won’t comply with the FARs for N-reg aircraft, and these dominate the IFR community.
UK CAA opinion on cost shared flights Local copy
They suggest you use only sites which have signed up to the EASA Charter to promote the safety of non-commercial General Aviation flight with light aircraft by flight sharing companies Local copy
Not sure what to make of this. Nothing new there, but it sounds like they came across some illegal stuff and the defendants successfully claimed that they didn’t understand the regulations. Or maybe a fallout from the recent Murgatroyd case?
