I am saddened for the people who were wrongly accused, and I am also saddened that this incident has occurred. It highlights the deficiencies in the system, and simply begs a repeat show. However, we are now seeing our ‘government’ suggesting that stronger regulation is needed. Once more the good guys are to be penalised by the actions of idiots ( or plastic bags, or whatever) that have threatened manned aircraft. No responsible pilot would do, but irresponsible ones will, and they will also ignore regulations, so will more regulation work to stop them? No! I hold a PfCO , and I feel tha is increasingly under threat by these idiots. Responsible pilots need to take a stand against all forms of irresponsible behaviour, and that includes not allowing images on forums that have been taken in contravention of local laws, not praising them if they are included, not helping those who want to illegally modify their aircraft and so on. I suspect that airworthiness tests may come along toraise money for our hard pressed government, but also to check on what craft are flying. Again if will affect the good guys not the bad. But we all need to take a determined stand before we lose the right to fly at all.
