£4,000 fine for man who crashed model plane near nuclear shipyard for ‘illegal flying of unmanned aircraft’

The owner of a remote-control plane has been ordered to pay £4,340 in fines and costs after it crashed in a no-fly zone near a BAE Systems shipyard that builds nuclear submarines.

Robert Knowles lost control of the £2,000 delta-wing plane fitted with a surveillance camera and it ended up in the sea.

It was washed up weeks later and police traced the TV repairman because the camera had recorded his car registration number as the plane took off.

The aircraft also bore the name of his company, Vision TV Repairs.

Knowles, 46, was convicted in his absence of failing to comply with air regulations.

He was found to be in control of an unmanned aircraft which travelled within 50metres of Walney Bridge in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and over the nearby BAE shipyard. The aircraft, with a 1.35m wingspan and weighing 1.86kg, crashed into Walney Channel and was recovered by a BAE employee.

It is against air regulations to fly aircraft over the BAE facility without permission from the Civil Aviation Authority.

Knowles failed to attend the hearing and his defence lawyer was withdrawn as a result. He had previously pleaded not  guilty to two counts of failing to comply with air regulations on the basis that he was not in  control of the plane.

Last October Knowles, of  Dalton, Cumbria, said: ‘I think it’s all a bit heavy-handed. I understand safety concerns, but at the end of the day I would not have put my name on the plane if I was a bomber or a spy.’ On Tuesday he was fined £800 at Furness Magistrates’ Court for being both the controller and operator of the plane.

He was also ordered to pay £3,500 in court costs and a £40 victim surcharge.

District judge Gerald Chalk said: ‘The aircraft had a camera on it and the film has been shown to me. It shows the route the aircraft took over the bridge and over the nuclear facility. It shows a man operating the aircraft and a parked car.’

The court heard that Knowles had carried out seven flights from Walney on the day last August. He used a sensor from the aircraft to follow each flight on a laptop.

Alison Slater, prosecuting on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority, said that the video footage showed Knowles launching the aircraft, incriminating himself in the process.

She said: ‘The footage was taken to Greater Manchester Police for analysis. The aircraft was in the charge of Mr Knowles and he was the operator of it.’

In an email to Robert Webb, standards officer from the Civil Aviation Authority, Knowles said he lost sight of the aircraft and could not locate it.

He said he didn’t know how he lost control of the plane, and couldn’t rule out ‘outside influence’. He is said to be considering an appeal against the verdict.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2595245/First-UK-prosecution-dangerous-driving-DRONE-Man-fined-800-illegal-flying-unmanned-aircraft.html#ixzz2xop9u9ek
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