Crash victim’s desperate pleas haunting pilot
A PILOT has opened up about the harrowing SOS call made by plane crash victim Nigel Dodds moments before his death.
Mr Dodds and passenger Valerie Barnes, from Whickham, Gateshead, were killed when their light aircraft came down by the Queen’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on Monday.
It is understood Mr Dodds, 58, lived in Menorca and was flying back from the Spanish island to Newcastle to his house in Dunston, Gateshead.
And fellow pilot Jeff Espenship has revealed he wished he could have been in the cockpit to “help calm” Mr Dodds after hearing his desperate SOS plea.
The commercial airline pilot was flying from Paris to New York when he heard Mr Dodds over the emergency frequency channel.
He said: “I heard this guy radioing for help. Our position was approximately 45 miles south of where he went down.
”I Googled to see if they made it but was very sad to read they perished.
“His voice over the radio was very distraught. I so wished I could have been there in his cockpit to help calm him and talk him through the landing.”
Emergency services were called shortly before 11am to the crash site near the village of Wolferton, but the North East pair were both pronounced dead at the scene.
Tributes to Mr Dodds have flooded in since news of his death broke.
Friend Anna Scott said: “Nigel was the kindest, most loveliest person you’d ever meet.
“He always made me smile and he will be sadly missed.”
Neighbours William and Doris Lauderdale have lived next to Mr Dodds’ Dunston home since the 1990s. Both said he was a very upbeat and vibrant personality.
Mr Lauderdale said: “I don’t know where to start. He was the kind of honest and reliable man you would like to have living next door.
“When he was back, he’d go to the quiz at Holmside Hall Social Club every Wednesday. Nigel was very sociable, he would talk for ages and come in for a cup of tea before going away. “He had taken up walking, running and cycling recently and I had never seen him happier.”
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) believes the investigation could take up to a year.
Recovery of the Piper PA28 plane was carried out on Tuesday evening and taken to Farnbrough, in Hampshire, for examination. An AAIB spokesman said normally investigations take between 10 to 12 months before they can conclude how the plane crashed.
He said: “There are all manner of things we look into – the settings the instruments were on, testing different parts, conducting interviews and obtaining records.
“We try to come up with a picture of what happened and why.”
A no-fly zone within 1.5 miles of Anmer Hall in the Sandringham Estate was established in 2015, restricting anything from flying below 2,000ft.
The ban was put in place for security reasons associated with the residence of members of the Royal family.
His voice over the radio was very distraught. I so wished I could have been there in his cockpit to help Jeff Espenship