18 August 2015
If you’re a regular reader of the famous FLYER forum, you’ll have seen the thread about a flying instructor who made an emergency precautionary landing at closed Plymouth Airport because of bad weather. The leaseholders of Plymouth Airport, property developers Sutton Harbour Holdings, are refusing to let him fly his aircraft out and a high-tension stand-off is the result with the Jodel as hostage.
The instructor had been visiting Bodmin Airfield in Cornwall to carry out biennial reviews for two pilots. When he checked the weather for his flight home to Farthing Corner, Kent, it wasn’t brilliant but VFR all the way… or so he thought. Passing Plymouth the weather suddenly deteriorated and the only safe option was the precautionary landing – and a nice big hard runway on the outskirts of Plymouth beckoned.
Security guards at the defunct site, closed by SHH four years ago, were initially OK for the pilot to return two days later when the weather forecast was good to fly it out. However, then SHH bosses got involved and said the Jodel would have to be taken out by road, and also demanded recompense for the security guards costs and legal fees. Concrete blocks were placed around the aircraft to stop it being moved. It’s in the open, behind locked gates.
FLYER contacted SHH who issued this statement: “A light aircraft landed at the former airport site last weekend and we are in contact with the pilot/owner to enable its safe removal.” The company has nothing to add, said the spokesman.
FLYER understands that SHH has insisted upon a media blackout, with the flight instructor unable to speak to the press.
The current situation, so far as we understand, is that Plymouth Council councillors are meeting this week to apply some pressure on SHH to let the pilot fly out his aircraft. It was the council who granted SHH a lease on the airport in the first place. We also understand that Sir Gerald Howarth MP, a member of the government and a private pilot, has been in touch with SHH.
PHOTO: Sarah Waddington, Plymouth Herald
