A NEW OFFENCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 October 1925, Page 9

A NEW OFFENCE.

LOW FLYING. TRESPASS OVER LORD DERBY’S LAND. Life, one might have thought, had been made sufficiently hectic for most of us since motors came in. and Ford made a flivver a necessary of life and since mankind had become separable into two classes—the quick and) the dead. , ~ , . But a new terror has been added to life. We are liable to trouble, not only on the highways and byways, but in our own back yards (writes a London correspondent). The law is taking notice of that new beast, the air hog, as witness the fact that for the first time in our history a new offence is scheduled, called “low flying.” And it seems to deserve, the name, as does the airman who indulges in it. . , John Joseph Flynn, an airman, who pleaded not giiilty at Liverpool to a charge of causing unnecessary danger to people on the Aintree racecourse by low flying, was fined £lO, with the alternative of 30 days’ imprisonment. Tt was alleged that the defendant caused considerable commotion by flying over the course at the last Aintree meeting, and that Lord Derby, who was on the course, ordered the aeroplane to ne warned off. Mr Flynn’s license, it was stated, was suspended by the Air Ministry pending the proceedings. For the prosecution it was stated that tho course was crowded, and that Flynn came over at a low altitude and encircled the enclosure, _ paddock, and country stand. The noise of the engine was deafening. The defendant said in evidence that he had been a pilot since returning .from the war. There was not tli© slightest danger of his descending among the crowd. At no time was he lower than 100 feet.