Family mourns five in helicopter crash
FIVE members of a family are thought to have died after their helicopter crashed on the way to a christening, it has emerged.
Kevin Burke and his wife Ruth are believed to have been in the red Twin Squirrel aircraft when it vanished from radar screens on Wednesday, friends said.
It is now understood the couple had been joined on the trip by Mr Burke’s two brothers and the wife of one of them.
Police yesterday confirmed finding the flight wreckage and five bodies in the Rhinog mountains near Trawsfynydd, Snowdonia.
However, the search was set to be suspended until today because of poor weather and the potentially hazardous terrain in which the helicopter crashed.
The alarm was raised after the aircraft, owned by Mr Burke’s company Staske Construction, failed to arrive at its destination.
The Burke family are understood to have left Milton Keynes for the 250-mile flight to Dublin – where Mrs Burke was born – to attend a christen- ing with three other adult family members.
Police confirmed the couple’s two teenage children were not on board.
North Wales Police told The Daily Telegraph: “The five victims are all adult and part of the same extended family from the Milton Keynes area.” Supt Gareth Evans said the victims had not yet been formally identified and that their families were being supported by specialist officers from Thames Valley Police.
He added: “I’m sure you’ll appreciate this is an agonising time for the families and friends of all involved. Our thoughts are very much with them at this time.”