A pilot who crashed a plane - 'narrowly missing the M62' - has been told to expect a significant jail term after being found guilty of endangering an aircraft and the lives of those on the motorway below.

Robert Murgatroyd, 52, denied any wrongdoing but was unanimously found guilty on Wednesday of seven offences following a three week trial at Manchester Crown Court.

He will be sentenced next month.

Judge Michael Leeming said he would adjourn sentencing until March 15 for a pre-sentence report to be drawn up, and for Murgatroyd to put his affairs in order.

He warned the defendant to expect a 'significant sentence' of imprisonment, saying the offending 'comfortably crossed the custodial threshold'.

(Image: GMP)

Here, court reporter Andrew Bardsley investigates the case in more detail.

Prosecutors in Manchester said it was 'pure luck' that Robert Murgatroyd and his three passengers lived to tell the tale.

Murgatroyd, an experienced pilot from Blackpool, had taken off from Barton Aerodrome in Salford on Saturday, September 9, 2017, with three bird watchers as his passengers.

He ended up in court after 'grossly overloading' the light aircraft, which he was using to fly the three men to the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, where the American Redstart bird had been seen for the first time in 30 years.

They did not get to see the bird that day, and didn't even make it out of Salford.

It was a wet day, and there were puddles on the runway.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Murgatroyd had been advised to stay away from a particular part of the grass runway which was very damp.

Among a crowd of onlookers, all aviation enthusiasts with a nagging doubt in their minds due to the awful weather conditions, one experienced flying instructor remarked that Murgatroyd was 'going for it'.

So concerned were the fire crew there at the scene, they put on their protective firefighting kit in advance.

The acceleration of the plane was said to be 'sluggish', and during a test run, another onlooker noted that the front wheel of the aircraft 'showed no sign of lifting off the ground'.

Onlookers were also worried about the weight of the plane.

(Image: GMP)

As a rule of thumb in such aircraft, it is usually the case that there would only be two people on board if the fuel tanks have been filled to the brim.

If there are four people on board, the fuel tanks are usually left half full to compensate.

But there were three passengers and himself, and Murgatroyd had filled the tanks to the brim.

The plane was more than 400lbs - 181kg - overweight.

After the first practice run, Murgatroyd gained enough speed to take off, flying in the opposite direction from the Barton Bridge, towards the M62.

It was only in the air for a matter of minutes.

After getting off the ground, the plane was 'struggling', and an onlooker said it 'wallowed in the air'.

(Image: GMP)

It soon became clear the plane was in danger of heading towards electricity pylons, after making it over the M62.

To avoid the pylons, Murgatroyd turned left and headed back over the M62, beginning the descent.

It clipped the trees at the side of the M62 before crashing onto a potato field about 150 metres from the motorway.

Later Murgatroyd claimed he had completed a 'forced landing under power', and tried to paint himself as the man of the hour.

But the immediate fear when the plane crashed was that it might blow up.

Opening the case to the jury, Henry Blackshaw said: "We say it was sheer luck that the plane did not catch fire on impact.

"Had it done so, needless to say the likelihood was that the passengers would not have lived to tell the tale.

"Likewise, had it crashed onto that busy motorway there would have been a significant risk of death or serious injury to the road users on it."

The left wing of the plane was ripped off, causing fuel to spill out, and the undercarriage was also ripped off.

Bird watcher Alan Whitehead, who sat in the front passenger seat, told jurors: "I was panicking. I was covered in blood. I could then smell petrol and then obviously I am trying to get out of the door."

There was also a sense of dread in the aircraft just before it crashed.

Another passenger, Adam Archer, said: “I thought if we don’t get any height we are not going to make this. We hit what I thought were the trees next to the road. We went over the motorway and landed in the field.”

(Image: GMP)

He added: “Alan was in quite a bad way and he was quite shook up.

“He was shouting ‘you have killed us, what have you done to us’ and things like that. I just tried to calm Alan down. I don’t know how I got out but I managed to get out."

Mr Whitehead suffered a serious cut to his head, and bruised ribs. The other three passengers were less seriously hurt.

The drama continued in an astonishing interview Murgatroyd gave to investigating officers.

Investigating officers from GMP's Serious Collision Investigation Unit are more used to dealing with road traffic incidents than plane crashes, so they called in experts from the Civil Aviation Authority for help.

In the first few interviews, Murgatroyd portrayed himself as the 'hero of the moment', claiming that he should be receiving an award, rather than being arrested, and that he had saved the lives of him and the three passengers.

He joked that Warner Brothers had been in touch to make a film on him, named 'Miracle on the Ship Canal', a play on 'Miracle on the Hudson'.

The film starred Tom Hanks as Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger, a pilot who landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River off Manhattan, after both the plane's engines were disabled by a bird strike. All 155 people aboard survived.

Later, Murgatroyd was told that the CAA were listening to what he was telling officers from another room in the police station.

Prosecutors said his answers to questions soon changed.

They said that 'greed got the better of' Murgatroyd, who they said would have made a profit of £1,000 from the round trip.

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At trial, the main issue for the jury was whether Murgatroyd acted recklessly or negligently in overloading the plane, recklessly being the more serious.

Giving evidence to the jury, Murgatroyd admitted making 'one of the biggest errors I have made in aviation'

He said he had forgot to include his own weight in the calculations he made in preparation for the flight.

The other important issue was whether the flight was being operated commercially for profit, which is illegal for pilots such as Murgatroyd who only holds a private pilot's licence.

He claimed it was a cost sharing agreement, which is legal to those holding the licence he did.

But the jury rejected Murgatroyd's account, finding that that he acted recklessly, and that he illegally ran a commercial flight.

Now he faces prison.

Murgatroyd, of Windy Harbour Road, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, was found guilty of seven offences.

These were endangering the safety of an aircraft, endangering the safety of a person, flying without an air operator certificate, acting as pilot without holding an appropriate licence, flying an aircraft otherwise than in accordance with the limitations in the flight manual, operating an aircraft without insurance and flying without the aircraft flight manual.

'His arrogance knows no bounds' - Sgt Lee Westhead

Sergeant Lee Westhead, senior investigation officer from GMP’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Murgatroyd is a selfish and greedy man who put his profit above the safety of his passengers and those on the ground, including people using the M62.

“He knew the risks and went ahead and took them anyway – his arrogance knows no bounds.

“It is fortunate that no one lost their lives during this dangerous airmanship and he is a disgrace to law-abiding aviators who do everything they can to ensure passenger and public safety.

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“The Serious Collision Investigation Unit will not hesitate to work with partners to ensure those who break the law, and risk the lives of others, are investigated and brought to justice. Although aviation investigations are rare, they are not immune from police.

“I’d like to thank witnesses who came forward to help with evidence, PC Suzanne Keenan, and Simon Pollock and Anthony McKeown from the CAA’s Investigation Enforcement Team, as well as prosecuting barrister Henry Blackshaw - without them today’s judgement would not have been possible.”