Four killed as helicopter and plane crash in mid-air
FOUR people have been killed in a mid-air collision between a helicopter and a light aircraft flying from an airfield where air traffic control had been shut due to “staff shortages”.
Wreckage from the aircraft landed just over a mile from the former seat of the Rothschild banking family at Waddesdon Manor, Bucks, yesterday lunchtime. Members of the Rothschild family who still live on the estate reported hearing a “loud bang” and a plume of smoke could be seen above trees.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said the collision involved a helicopter and a Cessna 152, each carrying two people. Both of the craft had taken off from Wycombe Air Park, near High Wycombe.
A Notice to Airmen was previously issued to warn pilots that the airfield’s air traffic control services would be closed during three 30-minute periods on selected days between Nov 7-30 due to a “staff shortage”. The crash occurred around half an hour after the latest closure was due to end.
Mitch Missen, an off-duty fireman, witnessed the crash from his garden.
“I looked up and saw as both collided in mid-air, followed by a large bang and falling debris,” he said. “I rushed in to get my car keys and en route called the emergency services, who I continued to give updates as to its whereabouts.
“I wasn’t able to locate the actual crash site but directed police, fire and ambulance as best I could.”
Staff from the Grade I-listed Waddesdon Manor, managed by the Rothschild Foundation on behalf of the National Trust, helped direct emergency vehicles.
A member of the Rothschild family said the collision missed her by five minutes. The woman, who did not want to be named, said she heard a loud bang while driving her car to a dog-grooming event near Waddesdon.
Just five minutes earlier she had been picking a plant in the Wilderness Woods, the crash site.
“I’m totally shocked,” she said. “I heard a loud bang, which I thought was a car crash.”
Len Bellis, the Waddesdon Estate gardener, described how he found the “burning wreckage” minutes later and discovered he was just 10 yards from a body in the undergrowth. He had been working nearby when he heard a “horrendous noise” and saw two men running towards him 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 a “wreck” and “non-existent”, apart from the burning fuselage. One parent wrote on Twitter: “Nothing like your heart stopping when you learn that a plane has come down ... 500m from your toddler’s nursery.”
The crash is understood to have involved a Cessna 152 which had suffered substantial damage in a crash in Cornwall in July 1993. A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch showed the pilot admitted the accident was caused by his “misjudgment and lack of experience”.