Yes, a gyrocopter. Like the one in The Road Warrior. Except in this case, the pilot harried hunts, rather than hunted for juice. But the non-fictional British pilot, one Bryan Griffiths, faces a decidedly different fate than his cinematic counterpart. Griffiths is in court, charged with manslaughter, after his craft’s rotors sliced open a hunt supporter’s head. The Guardian reports that 48-year-old landscape gardener Trevor Morse was attempting to block Griffiths from taking off (mission accomplished) at the direction of huntmaster Anthony Spencer.
“The hunt, along with others in the Midlands, had been increasingly irritated by the way the gyrocopter regularly monitored outings, with a passenger filming the pack from low overhead. The Warwickshire hunt complained of nuisance and potential danger to the Civil Aviation Authority, which started an inquiry the day before Morse died. Spencer told Birmingham crown court: ‘I said that I’d make my way there as well [as Morse] and whoever got there first should park their vehicle next to it.’ The idea was to ‘pin’ the aircraft and prevent its rotors starting long enough for the group to confront and photograph the pilot, Bryan Griffiths, 55, he said.” What could possibly go wrong, did. I wonder if this would have happened if they’d hunted with guns . . .
