Pilot landed with £4,750 court bill for flying too close to Stansted Airport and too low over North Weald

A pilot of a light aircraft has been fined £4,000 for flying too close to Stansted Airport and too low over houses.

Christopher Hudson was flying a Folland Gnat when he flew into the airport control zone – the area of airspace directly over and around Stansted – and flew low over North Weald.

Hudson was also ordered at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court to pay £750 in costs to the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

Hudson pleaded guilty to four charges after flying into the control zone twice without obtaining clearance from air traffic control (ATC) on September 5, 2023.

Repeated radio calls by ATC to the Folland Gnat met with no response. Hudson’s incursions caused them to break off an inbound aircraft from final approach, instruct an inbound passenger flight to turn away and climb, and to instruct another inbound flight to circle, thereby delaying aircraft.

Hudson flew over North Weald at an altitude of 541ft above the ground – almost half the legal minimum limit of 1,000ft.

Alison Slater, head of investigations and enforcement at the UK CAA, said: “As the aviation regulator, safety is always our number one priority. This case is a reminder that all pilots need to follow safety rules when flying.”

Hudson appeared in court on August 29.

The Folland Gnat is a British subsonic fighter aircraft from the 1950s that was procured as a trainer aircraft for the Royal Air Force and exported to Finland, the former Yugoslavia and India, who used it in both combat and training capacities.

The Gnat became well known due to its prominent use as the display aircraft of the RAF’s Red Arrows aerobatic team.