This is a surprising and regrettable story. There was I thinking you could only get your hands on one of these if you signed for it and were left with Q's exhortations ringing in your ears: "And 007, DO be careful with it!". But I do not mean to be light-hearted. This is deadly serious.The rat-loving, bunny-hugging, human-loathing sabs appear to have got hold of one, with which they irritated the hell out of the Warwickshire Hunt and then, perhaps deliberately, used it as a lethal weapon:
From The Times
March 10, 2009
A keen hunt supporter has been killed after being hit by a gyrocopter believed to have been monitoring hunts in the area.
Trevor Morse, 48, died after the incident at Long Marston airfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, yesterday. Two men were arrested on suspicion of murder and were being questioned by officers in Leamington Spa last night.
Between 80 and 100 huntsmen were out yesterday at the hunt in Moreton-in-Marsh on the last day of the Warwickshire hunt season. The hunt met at the village of Todenham at 11.45am and the light aircraft, first spotted at noon, followed it for about two hours.
It is understood that an animal rights group, Protect Our Wild Animals, has been monitoring the Warwickshire and the Heythrop hunts from a gyrocopter over the past three weeks. Masters of the hunt told The Times that one of the low-flying aircraft had been reported to the Civil Aviation Authority and the police about ten days ago, amid fears that it was upsetting animals. It was said to have been swooping in an aggressive manner over the hunt.
Emergency services were called to the airfield just after 3pm yesterday after reports of a collision involving an aircraft and a pedestrian. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. It is believed that Mr Morse had gone with a friend to the airfield to try to discover who had been piloting the gyrocopter. He and a woman were believed to have approached the aircraft as it was refuelling.
The airfield manager, Anthony Hodges, 57, said: “It was the only aircraft to land all day and I believe the aircraft hit him as it was taxiing on the runway.”
Murder seems unlikely to stick, I think, unless there are independent witnesses. If murder it be, I hope they go to prison for life. But stout-hearted Trevor might have been untrained in how to approach aircraft with rotor-blades. We shall see. Condolences. RIP.
9 comments:
Funnily enough Iders, I immediately thought of you when I heard this - not as the flyer you understand, but as a supporter who would feel a certain amount of grief at what was an awful incident.
The Master of the hunt came over on TV as a shocked and genuinely upset at what had happened; even mentioning his parents etc etc.
Really dreadful. Deepest sympathies to the family and friends.
Antis are vile. Whilst it is nothing compared to this tragic event and I do not wish in any way to belittle it, I have had a brush with the antis on more than one occasion. On the worst, I was trying a new horse, out with the South Dorset. Antis jumped up behind a hedge with a rail in it, over which my new steed was negotiating his way. He tipped over, I was thrown clear but landed on my elbow, breaking the ball off the top of my arm ( lollipop fracture!). As I lay there, winded and in considerable pain, an anti spat on me and said ' you had it coming, you bitch!' I just smiled and said thank you for his kind words before being scooped up by two eccentric lady footies and taken off to a private hospital..( I did not want my coat cut!).
They really HATE us and I would not put anything past them..
Shocking. The hunting ban was an act of sheer political vindictiveness, and one which made me think of forming Hippies For Hunting.
Today, I guess I formally joined the hunting community, having had to separate Pig from the hind leg of a deer that he was fastened to. Beast squealing like nobody's business. Blood and fluff on him, and then on me! Deer looked OK as it sped off, sadly I had neither the means to finish it off (and then sneak across the road to where the van was parked, with deer over shoulders) or the experience to do so.
Idle - come and teach us how to hunt and slay deer, please :-)
Sometime around Easter, elby, I'll be near Bruton.
Next time they should take somebody with a licensed shotgun to put a few markers across the pilot's bows. That'll keep him high enough not to be able to do any similar damge.
I can't help but think that this is an accident.
I joined the Countryside Alliance on their march to Parliament a few years back. I was hugely impressed at the dignity and good naturedness of it. Not one speck of litter and total respectful silence past the Cenotaph.
As some hunts use Eagle owls and indeed Eagles to deal with Brer Reynard maybe the hunts men could train our feathered friends to rip the eye balls out of Hoons who hover about ruining a good day out?
This is a textbook case of the divide re !left" and "right". One only needs to play it out with the roles reversed to be able to readily imagine the Spartist reaction everywhere to one of their own done in by a dastardly capitalist decapitator.
Idle, it would be a delight to meet up.
TT - my thoughts exactly, had the roles been reversed.
As an ex-Bristolian I keep an eye on a couple of Bristol bloggers. Fantastic row there recently, resulting from a black female councillor calling an Indian one a "coconut" (brown outside, white inside). When charged that this was racist, she replied
"I can't be racist. I'm black"
OK.
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