Death crash pilot walks free

Noel Edmonds: supported boy's parents after the fatal crash

The pilot of a helicopter which crashed, killing a boy during a charity flight organised by TV presenter Noel Edmonds, has walked free from court after the case collapsed.

Robert Hobson was acquitted of negligence after a Scottish Sheriff ruled there was insufficient evidence.

Mr Hobson 56, left Forfar Sheriffs Court, near Dundee, without commenting.

Thomas Simpson, 31, the father of nine-year-old Garry Malley, from Dundee, who was killed when the helicopter crashed at Glamis Castle, Angus, last July, vowed to pursue the matter with a private prosecution.

He said: "I don't care how long it takes me but somebody is responsible for my son's death and I will make sure they are punished."

Pleasure flights

Mr Simpson, a loader at a supermarket, said he holds no grudges against Mr Edmonds, who had been in contact with the family.

The crash happened during a programme of pleasure flights organised by the entertainer's charity for children with special needs, the Airborne Trust. A second boy passenger, aged 11, was injured.

Mr Hobson, an experienced pilot from Penicuik, Midlothian, had been accused of putting passengers at risk by taking off with misted windows and flying the helicopter with restricted visibility.

However, defence counsel Michael Jones, QC, argued there was no evidence for this.

'Confusing outcome'

The Crown had argued there was "an error of judgement" made by the pilot when, after landing in a field which he thought was full of cattle, he chose to fly the helicopter to an adjacent field. It was during this manoeuvre that the undercarriage of the aircraft snagged on an electric fence, causing it to crash.

But Sheriff James Scott said the Crown could not prove this was negligent because there was no evidence to suggest that, even if the windows were misted up, Mr Hobson did what no other competent pilot would have done.

An Airborne Trust spokesman said the collapse of the trial was unsatisfactory.

He said: "This is a confusing outcome which does nothing to answer many of the questions which Garry's family and the team at Airborne are desperate to have answered."

It is expected that a fatal accident inquiry by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch will begin in six weeks.