Navy blows up bomb

A ROYAL Navy minehunter has destroyed a 500lb wartime bomb which was dredged up by a fishing boat and then dropped “dangerously close” to a major North Sea gas pipeline.

A Dutch trawlerman had hauled the device, dropped by German bombers in the Second World War, on to the deck of his vessel after it was caught in its fishing nets.

He then lowered the bomb down on to the sea bed for safety. FOUR people have died in a mid-air collision between a helicopter and a two-seater aircraft.

Both of the aircraft are understood to have come from Wycombe Air Park and collided near the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, shortly after midday.

Superintendent Rebecca Mears of Thames Valley said last night the aircraft were carrying two people each.

She said she could not give any details of the identity or the genders of the victims at this stage and her “first priority” at this stage was the next of kin.

The two aircraft came down close to – but not in – the famous Waddesdon Estate, the former country seat of the Rothschild banking dynasty.

The plane involved was a Cessna 152, built in 1982 and owned by Airways Aero Associations which is based at the Wycombe Air Park. It had flown almost 14,000 hours as of May and had previously suffered substantial damage to its landing gear, propeller and engine following a crash at a Cornish airfield in 1993.

Supt Mears said: “Our priorities today remain with investigating the next of kin, finding out who they are, informing them and supporting them with specialist officers as we progress the investigation.”

A member of the Rothschild family told of her shock after the collision missed her by five minutes.

The woman, who did not want her full name published, said she heard a loud bang while she was driving her car to a dog grooming event near Waddesdon.

Fve minutes earlier she had been picking a plant in the Wilderness Woods, the scene of the crash site, on the Estate. “I’m totally shocked,” she said. “I heard a loud bang, which I thought was a car crash.”

Waddesdon estate gardener Len Bellis described how he found the “burning wreckage” minutes later. He had been working nearby when he heard a “horrendous noise”. Two men had come running towards him from the woods shouting, “did you see it, did you see it?”

Mr Bellis said one of them told him he heard a plane “stuttering” just before the crash.

“I just came across the wreckage,” said Mr Bellis, who described the light aircraft as “non-existent”, apart from the 5ft burning fuselage. He later found out he was just 10 yards from a body in the undergrowth.

Police said there were two people on board both aircraft.