Coast guard pilot suspended for picking up steak... with helicopter. - Polidicks

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/vfM3m.jpg[/IMG] [I]"Bravo actual, we have visual contact, I repeat, we have visual contact, over." [/I] [QUOTE]The crew of the Shetland Coastguard aircraft flew 85 miles from their base to pick up £400 worth of prime cuts on the unscheduled shopping trip to Orkney. The incident came to light after a video of the helicopter landing in a field was posted on YouTube. Mobile phone footage, since removed from the site, showed two crewmen collecting a bag of beef from several butchers who were there to see the landing. The aircraft touched down in a field near ER & T Craigie, a butcher based at Tankerness on the east mainland of Orkney. CHC Helicopter, the operator of the aircraft, has launched an inquiry and confirmed that the pilot had been suspended. A spokesman said the training exercise had been completed before the landing, and any costs incurred would be met by the company, not the taxpayer. She added: "We expect high standards of professionalism from all our employees and if we find these have not been met, we will take the appropriate action. "While the aircraft was previously engaged in a training exercise, it was operating a non-revenue flight at the time of the incident in question." The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it had asked CHC to investigate as a matter of urgency and regarded any misuse of its assets as "completely unacceptable". Meanwhile, Thorfinn Craigie, 38, the butcher at the centre of the incident, said he was horrified to learn that the pilot had been suspended, and pointed out that the aircraft had been "in the area" at the time. He also revealed that it was the second time a helicopter had landed to collect premium meat. He added: "They normally land about two miles away at Kirkwall Airport and they wanted us to meet them at the airfield. But I told them that since I own the land behind the butchery shed, they could land there. "One of the crew said that would be great because they have to train to do drops in rough areas. "So they did it last month and did it again on Monday. They love our meat and came back for more. It was all good cuts. Fillet steaks and roasting joints of silverside." Mary Scanlon, the Highlands and islands Conservative MSP, said Orkney meat was world famous for its quality, adding: "The Shetland Coastguard are obviously aware of this, but next time they fancy some of it they should consider vacuum-packed mail order, and not use life-saving training time for a shopping trip." [/QUOTE][URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9216688/Coastguard-pilot-suspended-for-using-helicopter-to-pick-up-steaks-from-Orkney-butcher.html"] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9216688/Coastguard-pilot-suspended-for-using-helicopter-to-pick-up-steaks-from-Orkney-butcher.html[/URL]

Post-420 munchies? At least they landed in the owner's lot with his permission, I don't see why they could be suspended for that.

This is one of those things that I would love to do if I was in the military, but on the other side of the coin you have everyone else in the country bitching about how you're wasting taxpayer dollars. It would be pretty awesome if the military wasn't such a strict place. Like a service where everyone is serious about protecting the country but with a little leeway for dicking around when you're at home base.

Didn't this happen before with some Canadian pilots? [B]Edit:[/B] Yep. [url]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/10/02/kenora-helicopter002.html[/url]

Woah, what a badass.

[QUOTE=psychojake;35666834]Post-420 munchies? At least they landed in the owner's lot with his permission, I don't see why they could be suspended for that.[/QUOTE]Permission doesn't matter, the entire act was unsafe and would have put everyone in danger if something was to go wrong.

Cops in America do something similar all the time. Up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. A cop was witnessed flipping on his lights to go threw red lights. Went threw about 4-5 lights to stop a gas station to fill up his patrol car. While the cost of this may have not been 400 pounds it is a bit of a gray area one may say.

I once saw a Bell Jet Ranger land outside the liquor store. A dude in a suit got out and went into the store I presume to buy booze. Then he just flew off. I live down the road from said store and heard the helicopter coming in for landing. I thought there was an accident or something because I thought it was the air-ambulance landing. I was wrong.

[QUOTE=Aide;35666931]Cops in America do something similar all the time. Up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. A cop was witnessed flipping on his lights to go threw red lights. Went threw about 4-5 lights to stop a gas station to fill up his patrol car. While the cost of this may have not been 400 pounds it is a bit of a gray area one may say.[/QUOTE] You do know that just about every cop in existence does this, right? Both in my home town and "college town" they do this.

[QUOTE=FunnyBunny;35666886]This is one of those things that I would love to do if I was in the military, but on the other side of the coin you have everyone else in the country bitching about how you're wasting taxpayer dollars. It would be pretty awesome if the military wasn't such a strict place. Like a service where everyone is serious about protecting the country but with a little leeway for dicking around when you're at home base.[/QUOTE] Military isn't very serious at all when you're off work.

[QUOTE=Archonos 2;35666954]You do know that just about every cop in existence does this, right? Both in my home town and "college town" they do this.[/QUOTE] They come down hard on officers that do that in Nashville, and you can't get away with doing anymore anyway as pretty much every patrol car has what is essentially a black box from aircraft for a car

This is my coastguard. Can't say I'm surprised this happened.

I like how the butcher's attitude is basically "meh, they were in the area anyways" as if they were just driving by. Helicopters are high maintenance items. The man hours of work, not to mention cost of parts, required to keep one in safe operating condition makes every minute of flight time costly. It's not like borrowing the company car to go pick up lunch.

Would somebody have noticed the helicopter was used? Maybe they tried to hide it by keeping it on the ground and spinning the rotors backwards.