Falklands : Time To Clamp Down on Filing Flight Plans
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 11.10.2005 (Article Archived on 25.10.2005)
Flying in the South Atlantic is not as straight forward as some might think.
TIME TO CLAMP DOWN ON FILING FLIGHT PLANS
An Editorial by J. Brock (FINN)
Over the weekend an argentine aircraft touched down at Stanley airport almost unannounced. Thanks to the Military at Mount Pleasant, FIGAS did have prior warning.
Argentine flights to the Falklands in themselves are not unusual but what made this one stand out as particularly naïve is the fact that the pilot did not file a flight plan with authorities in Argentina prior to making the trip.
At this time it is not known by FINN whether the aircraft was flying VFR or by instruments – that doesn’t matter as much as the fact that there was no flight plan and things in the fickle weather in this part of the South Atlantic can go wrong very quickly.
It’s just plain fool-hearty to think that just because it is considered to be an internal flight by the Argentines that flight plans aren’t necessary. The subject matter needs be revisited with a view to having a look at the danger level of flights, no matter how short. No one wants to report a missing person, only to find out that an unplanned flight, taken on a whim, when horribly wrong.
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