United's training ground set-piece moves are pictured from
above.
MYSTERY last night surrounded the whereabouts of aerial
footage taken of Manchester United stars in top-secret training
sessions.
It remained unclear who authorised the filming in a specially
converted Cessna light aircraft and whether the material is
destined for this country or abroad. The covert clips of players
such as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo working on tactics,
formation, free kicks and penalties during the astonishing spying
mission could be invaluable to rival clubs.
Videos and stills of the training were driven from a Derbyshire
airfield to Heston Services on the M4 - a mile from Heathrow
airport - and handed to a mystery client in a Chrysler Grand
Voyager with blacked-out windows.
He shook hands with the delivery man - one of two on board the
Cessna 172 Skyhawk commissioned by a photographic agency - then
left after a 30-second encounter.
Earlier, the Mirror watched as the plane - registration G-CBME -
passed over United's high-security training complex at Carrington
while manager Sir Alex Ferguson would have been putting his team
through their paces. The sky blue-striped Cessna, owned by a
company called Skytrax Aviation, swooped down to about 1,500ft to
get the best shots.
It is believed three other spying mission have been carried out.
The one we saw was last Wednesday morning. Wayne Rooney, Rio
Ferdinand and Paul Scholes were among the first-team squad training
as the four-seater, single-engine plane - adapted to carry camera
equipment - twice buzzed over them at 1,500ft between 11.45am and
11.50am.
A huge circular lens was clearly visible from the ground. A panel
had been unscrewed from the belly of the plane providing a gap for
both video and stills cameras to operate. The plane skirted around
the edge of the heavily guarded training ground before heading off
into the distance.
MISSION: Plane swoops over the training
ground
An aviation source said last night: "G-CBME may look like a little
old Cessna with a single propeller but it is anything but. "It has
a £100,000 engine which operates on jet fuel.
"This is very unusual and means that the plane is able to fly much
more quietly which obviously does not alert people on the ground so
much to its presence. It also has £50,000 worth of specialist
equipment on board. It has been deliberately modified so it looks
like a little sight-seeing pleasure plane but it is equipped for
some of the best surveillance operations in Britain."
The plane had taken off in fierce cross winds from tiny Egginton
airfield 60 miles away in Derbyshire 40 minutes earlier. It arrived
back at the grass airstrip 2.05pm with its potentially damaging
cargo. One of the men then jumped into an estate car and sped south
and on to the M40.
When he reached the M25 he joined the M4 and drove towards London,
arriving at Heston Services near Heathrow airport where he was
flagged down by the client in the Chrysler. An A4 sized silver
coloured metal case was handed over. The contact smiled, patted the
delivery man on the shoulder and then left.
United lead the Premiership and are still in the FA Cup and
European Champions League competitions that could lead to the
club's second Treble. If it is proved another Premiership club has
or ordered the footage there could be serious repercussions under
Football Association rules on conduct.
The Mirror was alerted to the secret mission after a series of
flight plans over Carrington were logged with Manchester air
traffic control. Several non-standard flight numbers were given to
controllers. An ATC source said: "We received a request for this
NSF during the week beginning January 8.
"The pilot specifically asked for permission to film a small site
to the edge of Carrington village and it immediately rang bells
again because there have been three other very similar NSF requests
in recent months.
"It was activated at 10.30am on Wednesday January 17. The plane was
given permission to proceed." The firm that carried out the
surveillance is a respected aerial photographic agency called
British Geographical.
An aviation source said: "I don't know much about them but I know
they are highly regarded within the field of aviation photography."
Skytrax leased the Cessna out for £119 per hour to British
Geographical specifically for this assignment - although they would
not have known what was going to be filmed.
BG owner David Goddard said: "We never discuss who our clients are.
We always fly under strict Civil Aviation Authority guidelines and
always comply fully with local air traffic control."
THE VIEW: Every detail of training can be seen from the air
in
this picture taken by the Mirror.
