At 19:31 Hrs Team Call Out Contact Dave Healey, received a call from Greater Manchester Police, Duty Officer, reporting a possibly requirement for the Team with the reports from a member of the public of a possible light aircraft splutering and with no engine noise disappearing from view, possibly crashed, in the Blackrod area. Initial Police enquires also found that Manchester City Airport, formerly Barton had an aircraft they couldn’t contact, presumed missing.

As luck would have it the Team Leader, Garry Rhodes, was at Dave’s house writing up the previous incident. A quick conversation between Garry & GMP took place and it was decided to place the Team on immediate standby at our Base location, whilst Garry & Dave would proceed to the Blackrod / Haigh Hall area, gathering further information on route.

At 19:39 Hrs, as Team members were arriving at base and getting the vehicles and control trailer ready, more information came in that both Manchester City Airport, Barton & Manchester International Airport had now managed to make contact with the missing plane, which later turned out to be not in the area of the possibly crash. Further information was awaiting from India 99 the GMP Air Support Unit, who was up and flying over the possibly search area.

At 19:44 the GMP Duty Officer called back to say that India 99 could not find any wreckage in the area & as contact had been established with the missing aircraft, we could stand down our resources.

For information this is the second call in the space of two weeks, in relation to an aircraft crash. Luckily for all concerned they have both been False Alarm Good Intention calls from the public. See also news article on 4th April 2009.