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The dangers of flying with unlicensed charter services have come into the spotlight following the death of footballer Emiliano Sala.
The risks of unlicensed or "Grey Charters" were mentioned a number of times in an in-depth report looking into the crash that killed the sportsman.
A campaign led by the Civil Aviation Authority called Legal to Fly was also launched as part of measures to try and prevent a similar crash occurring. The report itself was released on Friday afternoon, and detailed why the Piper Malibu crashed.
The report said: "Unlicensed charter flight operations, which can also be known as ‘grey charters’ are unregulated and may be uninsured. Evidence collected by The Air Charter Association indicated that such flights may have become more widespread within the UK and Europe. They are often associated with sporting events where there may be many small aircraft transporting passengers. Due to the unlicensed nature of such flights, it is difficult to gauge the level of activity accurately. Enforcement is challenging because it requires a large commitment of resources.
Pictured: One of the safety actions taken following the crash was the launch of a campaign raising awareness about Grey Charters.
"The first part of the approach is to educate the travelling public who may unwittingly use one of these flights without realising that it is unlicensed and illegal. They unknowingly increase the level of risk they are taking and may be uninsured.
"The second part of the CAA approach is to educate those who are unwittingly breaking the law because they do not understand or are unaware of the regulations surrounding air charters. The CAA can support the development of companies, individuals or owners who seek to become compliant with the regulations. The final part of the CAA approach is to reduce the illegal activity by catching and / or prosecuting those involved."
A mix of Grey Charters and licensed charters operate out of the Channel Islands, and are suited to the smaller populations of the islands. But the charters are also closely linked the sporting world, the report said.
Pictured: Sala was being flown from Nantes to Cardiff by Ibbotson, and crashed north of Guernsey.
Emiliano Sala's flight was a "Grey Charter", although he was not paying pilot David Ibbotson personally. It has since been revealed that Mr Ibbotson was neither licensed to commercially fly passengers, nor to fly at night, which was when Mr Sala's plane went down.
Geraint Herbert, the AAIB Investigator in charge of looking into the crash said one of the focuses of the report released yesterday was to work out what could be done to prevent similar crashes happening again.
"The flight took place at night, although the pilot had no night rating on his licence," he said, "the pilot nor aircraft were licensed to be carrying a fee paying passenger, and so the flight was not conducted in accordance with safety standards applicable to commercial operations.
"Following this accident, the Civil Aviation Authority launched a campaign called Legal to Fly to raise awareness of the risks posed by unlicensed charters."
Pictured top: Geraint Herbert.
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