Horse breeder loses £100k action over low-flying jets

Published on Friday 11 December 2009 20:29

A HORSE breeder who claimed low-flying fighter jets ended her dream of setting up a stud farm lost a £100,000 damages action against the Ministry of Defence yesterday.

Alyson King, 48, claimed that RAF pilots repeatedly flew at less than 250ft over her farm at Drumjohn, near Carsphairn, in Dumfries and Galloway.

She said the noise of the jets created an unacceptable level of disturbance for her and her family, and frightened her horses and other animals.

The MoD disputed her estimate of the frequency of low flying, and the judge ruled that Ms King had come nowhere near proving her case.

Lord Pentland said at the Court of Session in Edinburgh: "I formed the clear impression that Ms King has, for whatever reason, convinced herself that there is a substantial amount of operational low flying over (Drumjohn]. She sincerely believes this to be the case, but the facts as established in the evidence do not bear this out."

Ms King's home lies in a tactical training area where some flying at 100ft-250ft is allowed. She said she had no problem with training flights above 250ft, but she maintained that the Jaguar and Tornado planes often dropped to lower altitudes.

She produced calendars from 2006 to 2009 on which she and her family had logged instances of what they regarded as unacceptably intrusive low flying.