Captain Christopher Hollands has just been awarded the very dubious honor of being the first person ever to be prosecuted under a British law that requires commercial airline pilots to establish and maintain two-way communication with air traffic control.
The shamed pilot has landed himself with a criminal conviction and a fine of £4,511 (US $5,800) after pleading guilty to failing to maintain continuous radio communication with air traffic control during a flight from Oslo to Manchester.
Captain Hollands’ action resulted in air traffic control alerting the Royal Air Force to a potential hijack, leading to fighter jets being scrambled to intercept and escort the Airbus A320 aircraft with 58 passengers onboard to Manchester, where it was sent to an isolated part of the airfield and boarded by heavily armed police.
The flight was being operated by SAS Connect, a British subsidiary of the Scandinavian airline, as a routine scheduled flight from Norway to England, with Captain Holland at the controls of the aircraft.
During the flight, prosecutors from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) accused Captan Hollands of failing to maintain contact with air traffic controllers for up to 30 minutes, despite the best efforts of officials to make contact with the wayward aircraft.
Air traffic control became so concerned that they declared a potential security incident and had two RAF Typhoon fighter jets scrambled to intercept the aircraft.
Incidents of lost communications causing security breaches are a matter of great concern both for us as the aviation regulator and for the Government,” commented Glenn Bradley, Head of Flight Operations at the CAA.
“Aviation is one of the safest methods of transportation, and it relies on pilots maintaining radio communication with air traffic control through the standard channels during flight,” Bradley continued.
The CAA says it is trying to reduce the number of lost communication incidents by educating pilots and airlines about the consequences of a security incident being declared. The authority has, however, also put pilots on notice that they now also face potential criminal prosecution.
If deemed serious enough, convicted pilots could face a potential maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.
