Robert Murgatroyd, 53, took off in his Piper Cherokee plane without weighing the free birdwatchers he was flying. He has now been hit with another three years for failing to tell insurers that his plane had been involved in three other crashes, with five of the passengers killed
A greedy pilot who left three passengers injured in a light aircraft crash after overloading his plane has been hit with more jail time for failing to tell insurers that his aircraft had already crashed three times.
Robert Murgatroyd, 53, took off in his Piper Cherokee plane from Barton Aerodrome on 9 September 2017 and crashing into a potato field adjacent to the M62.
He had ‘grossly overloaded’ his plane with three bird watchers who he was supposed to fly to the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. The entourage wanted to see a rare bird which hadn’t been seen there for 30 years.
The sentencing judge handed Murgatroyd a three and a half year prison term for aviation offences. But that was not the end of the pilot’s time in the dock, appearing again on Friday where he pleaded guilty to an offence of fraud and of making a false declaration to obtain insurance.
In May 2013, an aircraft operated and insured by Murgatroyd was hired out to a pilot and it crashed at Caernarfon in Wales, killing one and seriously injuring 2 others.
Following that incident, in June 2014 Murgatroyd was convicted of flying an aircraft without a valid certificate of airworthiness, and was fined £300.
Robert Murgatroyd crash landed his Piper Cherokee in a field after he decided to take off despite the aircraft being grossly overloaded
Murgatroyd agreed to fly three birdwatchers from Manchester to a Scottish island for £1,500 – even though his private pilots licence prohibited him from carrying passengers for hire
Robert Murgatroyd, 52, was found guilty of breaching numerous aviation laws today by a jury at Manchester Crown Court following a crash on September 7, 2017
In October 2011, another aircraft operated and insured by Murgatroyd was hired to a pilot, and it crashed in Switzerland killing both occupants.
In February 2007, another aircraft operated by Murgatroyd crashed into the sea at Blackpool, killing the two occupants.
The police’s investigation found that in the hours before taking out the insurance policy with Sydney Charles Aviation Insurance, Murgatroyd had been declined insurance from another firm.
They said that because Murgatroyd had previously operated under the name Fly Blackpool, the record for that operation must be disclosed. In two of the fatal crashes, he was operating as Fly Blackpool (Flybpl).
Shortly before the aircraft crashed, Murgatroyd claimed he did not have enough power
Replying to the insurers after he had been declined, Murgatroyd wrote:
‘What a crock of s***, flybpl has not had a claim on their policy and in any event the last known incident was GATRR on May 19 2012, a D*** Head Pilot who crashed my aircraft and killed his son, I perused [sic] him through the Courts privately and I got £17000 pay off, no help from you or your company!!!
‘You guys need to get real any one can insure this aircraft and anyone can fly it under club use, what D*** Head Pilot’s do after they depart is down to them, not the owner, Operator, Not the club, not the CFI (Certificated Flight Instructor) and definitely not the Authorising Instructor, Insurance companies and the shambles we call the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) need to address this instead of pointing the finger at one or two individuals.’
The court heard that a pre-sentence report described Murgatroyd as a ‘calculated risk taker’.
Judge Michael Leeming said Murgatroyd has a ‘cavalier attitude to aviation’, and sentenced him to a further 22 weeks in prison, to run consecutively to his three-and-a-half year term.
The court also heard Murgatroyd has a previous conviction from 2014 for flying an aircraft without a valid ceritificate of airworthiness
The judge told him: ‘I am satisfied you were financially motivated to act in the way you did, to secure for yourself a reduced premium.
‘This is a serious fraud.
‘These were deliberate lies told in order to achieve a financial advantage.’
Firefighters who witnessed the attempted take off became so concerned they donned their protective equipment before the aircraft crashed