Pilot who died when his James Bond style home-built plane crashed had been refused permit to fly amid safety doubts
A PILOT who died when his home-built James Bond-style plane crashed in a field had previously been refused a permit to fly the aircraft over safety fears, an official accident report has revealed.
Ireland’s Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) said authorities had granted Howard Cox, 67, permission to fly the Bede BD5 plane – after the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) banned the model from British skies.
The Bede model was immortalised in the opening sequences of infamous James Bond film Octopussy.
67-year-old Cox, who had over 3,200 hours of flying experience, was making his way to an air show in the west of Ireland in July 2015 when his engine unexpectedly failed.
He tragically crashed while attempting an emergency landing in a field.
His aircraft exploded into a ball of flames on impact.
The AAIU report revealed that in 1994 the very same plane – which was built from a kit – sustained serious damage after it made a similar emergency landing in Devon, when it suffered an engine failure.
According to inspectors, when Mr Cox applied for a new Permit-to-Fly for the aircraft just five years later, the CAA rejected the application.
At the time, authorities cited the aircraft’s “very poor safety record” as the reason for this, noting that American statistics showed there had been more than 80 accidents involving BD5s between the years of 1972 and 1998, 37 of which lead to death or serious injury.
The CAA also claimed that under-reporting of accidents meant the actual number of incidents was likely to be higher.
Mr Cox went on to make a new registration inquiry with the Irish Aviation Authority a year later.
He was then told he would require a recommendation from the Society of Amateur Aircraft Constructors (SAAC) in order to fly in Ireland.
In 2007 – following an inspection by the SAAC – Mr Fox was granted official permission to fly his aircraft in Irish skies.
The inspectors noted that the IAA had investigated the safety record of the home-built aircraft type, including contacting air authorities in Austria, where two BD5s had been authorised to fly.
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But they did question why there was no mention of the CAA’s stance in the documentation the IAA provided inspectors.
The report stated: "Whilst noting that the CAA Permit-to-Fly refusal was appealed by the pilot (and others) and that during that appeal the appellants disputed the CAA's interpretation of the accident statistics, the Investigation notes that no reference to the CAA's position, or consideration of the concerns which led the CAA to refuse to issue permits to fly for BD-5 aircraft, were included in the IAA records provided to the Investigation.
"The Investigation believes that it would have been prudent to have sought and documented the CAA's rationale for its Permit-to-Fly refusal."
The AAIU said the IAA’s documents also reported fewer total accidents involving the plane than the 80-plus noted by the CAA just eight years earlier.
It also questioned its interpretation of the information provided by Austrian officials.
The AAIU said when it made contact with the same Austrian official who’d been in contact with the IAA, the individual said there had actually been “several engine issues” with the plane.
Tragic Mr Cox was a father-of-one who spent more than 30 years perfecting his plane’s performance.
He was just eight minutes into his flight from Waterford to Shannon when the aircraft suffered engine trouble.
After attempting a crash landing, the plane’s left wing clipped a tree on the outskirts of a field before the entire wing broke off.
The plane then hit a hedgerow, before crashing to the ground and bursting into flames on impact.
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