Pilot fined for flying dangerously over Ballinasloe Fair

Galway Bay fm newsroom – A helicopter pilot has been fined 20 thousand euro for flying dangerously low over thousands of people attending Ballinasloe Horse Fair three years ago.
Imposing the fines at Galway Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Thomas O’Donnell said it was “an absolute miracle” that the pilot was not killed or an appalling catastrophe had not happened.
40-year-old businessman, Michael Mannion of Castlesampson, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty to five breaches of the Irish Aviation Authority (Rules of the Air) Act.
Sergeant Tom Horkan told the sentence hearing that numerous calls were made to Gardaí and other emergency services on the evening of October 2nd 2011, to complain about the low flying helicopter in Ballinasloe.
Michael Mannion, the court was told had consumed a beer shandy with a meal in Athlone earlier that evening before flying home.
He then decided to fly to Ballinasloe and landed in a car park, 30 meters from the Moycairn Lodge and Hotel near the town where he consumed almost two pints of Budweiser.
He then got back into the helicopter and took off in the direction of Ballinasloe.
It was a misty evening with intermittent drizzle, low cloud and poor visibility.
The helicopter flew away from the town and crashed in a field, 10km from the town at 7.20p.m.
It later emerged, that according to aviation rules, Mannion should not have been flying after 7.10pm that evening as darkness was closing in.
Mannion told the court his licence had been suspended by the Irish Aviation Authority and he had no intention of applying for a new one.
Judge O’Donnell said he took the view that this was a folly, pursued by a person inexperienced to fly in such conditions.
Mannion was fined 10 thousand euro for operating a helicopter in a public place at a height less than 1,500 feet above the ground or water, over a congested area of Ballinasloe town.
He was fined an additional 10 thousand euro for flying the helicopter within 500 feet of the radio mast at Ballinasloe Garda Station.
Three other charges relating to flying the helicopter in the vicinity of the town centre, at such a height which would not have permitted and without the consent of the Irish Aviation Authority and also to flying it closer than 150m to a Ferris wheel at a funfair in the town, were all taken into account.
The post Pilot fined for flying dangerously over Ballinasloe Fair appeared first on Galway Bay FM.