‘Planning flaws’ in plane crash killed Bake Off star’s relative

THE plane crash in which Bake Off star Paul Hollywood’s brother-in-law died was caused by poor flight planning, air accident investigators have found.

Simon Moores crashed into a cloud and fog-covered mountain after flying through an area where he could not see properly, a Spanish probe has ruled.

The 62-year-old father of two, whose sister Alex was married to Hollywood for nearly 20 years, died instantly along with his passenger David Hockings after their light aircraft smashed into Mount Hernio near the Basque Country town of Errezil.

Mr Hockings’s Piper Arrow III single-engine aircraft was destroyed in the accident in January 2019.

Ian Gouldroup, a Kent coroner, said last September at Mr Moores’s inquest the reasons behind the crash were uncertain and concluded the cause of death was unascertained.

Citing poor evidence and unreliable translations from Spanish documents, Mr Gouldroup said: “We don’t know whether there was an engine problem, whether it was mechanical. We don’t know why the accident occurred.”

But the confusion over the double tragedy was cleared yesterday with a report by the Spanish Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission, which indicated that “improper flight planning is deemed to have contributed to the accident”.

Ruling out any aircraft faults, and saying pilot Mr Moores and his passenger had valid licences and ample flying experience, investigators added: “The frontal impact against the rock wall on the mountain was so violent that there was no chance of survival.”

There were no members of Mr Moores’s family at the inquest at Canterbury magistrates’ court in Kent last September.