Pilot arrest follows plane chase
A police helicopter air chase which ended at Headcorn in Kent has led to the arrest of a pilot on suspicion of people-smuggling.
The National Crime Squad swooped on Friday after the pilot helped ferry people to destinations in London and Kent, a police spokesman said.
The pilot is suspected of flying illegal immigrants into the UK from Belgium and France.
The pilot, eight Turkish passengers and nine others are now being questioned.
Mid-air chase
Police said the plane first landed at Lamberhurst air strip, Kent, just before 0800 BST, where four people and a child were collected by a man who drove them to a restaurant in north London.
There the group was met by another man and all six adults were arrested, a spokesman said.
Officers said the pilot then flew across the Channel from Lamberhurst to collect four more people, who he took back to the Kent air strip, arriving at about 0945 BST.
At this point, police arrested the passengers and two more drivers, but the pilot took off immediately.
Police said the aircraft – a Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee six-seater – was chased by helicopter to Headcorn air strip, where the pilot was arrested and his plane seized.
Another five people were arrested at the restaurant during the day and £13,000 was retrieved, police added.
Chief Inspector Alex Wood said: “We believe the pilot was paid more than £4,000 for each trip he made.
“We suspect he may already have carried out 10 such trips.
“Passengers were charged 10,000 euros (£7,143) each for transport from Turkey to the UK.”
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/3860817.stm
Published: 2004/07/02 16:16:23 GMT
Flood.™
By: Flood - 4th July 2004 at 20:24
Bet they haven’t got this on the sleepy old general aviation forum!!!;)
Six charged following plane chase
Six people have been charged in connection with a suspected people smuggling incident in Kent.
They were arrested after a Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee six-seater aircraft was stopped at Headcorn Aerodrome on Friday.
The group, five from London and one from Surrey, are charged with plotting to smuggle illegal immigrants.
They will appear before Maidstone magistrates on Monday. Five others remain on bail.
Plane seized
The six people charged are Mensur Hassan, 32, of Daubeney Rd, Stoke Newington; Anthony Davies, 41, and Jeanette Davies, 40, both of Chalfont Rd, Edmonton; Isa Baskaya, 45, of Bemerton Street, Islington; Indat Oztas, 38, of Carleton Rd, Hornsey; and Wyatt Anderson, 46, of London Rd, Camberley, in Surrey.
One other person was released without charge.
The arrests were made after a plane suspected of flying illegal immigrants into the UK from Belgium and France was seen to make two landings at Lamberhurst airstrip, in Kent.
The National Crime Squad said on Sunday that six adult suspected illegal immigrants and one child had been handed over to the immigration service.
A spokeswoman said five of the adults were from Turkey, and one was from Algeria.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/3864355.stm
Published: 2004/07/04 10:09:13 GMT
Flood.™
By: Flood - 3rd July 2004 at 00:33
I wished them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year; thats once a year – isn’t that enough?
Flood.™
By: Flood - 3rd July 2004 at 00:16
I don’t go there, wouldn’t know.
Flood.™
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July 3, 2004 at 12:04 am