Instead, they impounded his helicopter and took him in for questioning. Rod Henshaw, a spokesman for the Nauru government, said the pilot had been arrested for making an unauthorised landing in the country. "I heard last night that this chopper had landed at Capelle Beach, which is just in front of the main supermarket here on the island, and they apparently told the police that they saw the supermarket sign so they landed there and went and got some chocolates and some soft drinks and a few snacks," he told Radio Australia.
The man apparently tried to argue that he was "sea crazy" after spending more than two months at sea, but the police refused to accept his excuse. Large fishing vessels, which take to sea for months at a time, often employ helicopter pilots to help them navigate around shallow reefs and spot shoals of fish. "He said 'look, we're only a short hop from this island, let's go and see what we can get in the way of a few snacks'," Mr Henshaw said. "So he and his passenger hopped aboard this little two-seater and away they went.
"After they landed, that's when it aroused quite a bit of attention, particularly from the police, who then intervened," Mr Henshaw said. The man now faces a maximum fine of $100,000 for breaching Civil Aviation regulations and for breaching the Immigration Act. The pilot and his passenger will spend the night in jail before facing court in the morning. Nauru is the world's smallest island state, with a population of just over 9,000. The country covers just 21 square miles and – being hundreds of miles from any other inhabited islands – unannounced visitors are rare.
6 comments:
I did some looking into that little island. I used to be called Pleasant Island, it has a approx 90% unemployment rate, and the main business is phosphate mining (phosphate that originated from bird dropping).
You'd think they'd be a bit more hospitable towards tourism...
Tourists? More like illegal immigrants. If the officials didn't react to this and actually let this go unpunished, Nauru would effectively have no borders and anyone could come and go as they pleased. Not that I imagine that would be a big problem in a tiny and remote place like Nauru, but it's the principle. They're supposed to be an independent country.
Oh, well if there's a principle involved...
"Illegal immigrants" would be planning to stay. That's clearly not what happened here. Sounds like Nauru is hiding something.
So you guys think countries shouldn't make such a fuss over their borders and controlling who comes in and what they bring with them? Or do you think like this only when it's a very small country like Nauru and you totally get why there are border checks and passports and custom officials and visas and all that stuff everywhere else in the world?
They should, but offences should be punished reasonably.
The guy is not a seasoned criminal, he wasn't emigrating, and left willingly and with his own funds.
He popped down on an island (that uses the Australian dollar as its currency) to buy a chocolate. Give him a reasonable fine then let him go!
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