Two die in small plane crash outside Belfast
TWO people died yesterday when a small plane crashed near Belfast Airport.
The identities of the two victims are still unknown.
The Cessna airplane is believed to have departed Newtownards Airport, Co. Down, where the Ulster Flying Club is based.
The flying club decline to comment to the Irish Daily Mail yesterday.
‘As far as I know there was no distress call,’ Alan Whiteside, operations manager of Belfast International Airport, told the Mail. ‘I think the aircraft just disappeared from air.
‘I get the impression it was doing a bit of a fly around possibly for photography and intending to go back to Newtownards.’
Roy Divers, 66, who was the first on the scene, relived the moment he witnessed the small two-seater airplane crash in a wooded field in Co. Antrim near Nutts Corner.
‘I was sitting in the living room watching TV and I looked out at the grass which needed cutting,’ the retired warehouse worker at Gallagher’s Tobacco Company told the Mail.
‘I saw a plane nosedive behind some trees,’ he said. ‘I ran upstairs to the bedroom window to check and I saw smoke.
‘When I got there, I could see that the pilot was already dead...
‘I couldn’t reach the body because of the flames.’
A spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said yesterday it received a call at 12.23pm that an aircraft was down. She said: ‘NIAS implemented its major incident protocols in response to this incident and one rapid response paramedic, three emergency ambulance crews and four officers were dispatched to the incident.
‘No patients were taken from the scene and the major incident was stood down at 12.49.’
Mr Divers said: ‘It wasn’t until the fire brigade arrived that I realised that there was a second person in the plane.’
Police Service of Northern Ireland Superintendent Emma Bond said: ‘Emergency services received a report of a crash shortly after 12.30pm this afternoon.
‘The Air Accidents Investigation Branch will examine the scene to determine the cause of the crash.
‘Cordons have been placed in the area surrounding the aircraft to maintain the integrity of the scene as the investigation continues.
‘I would ask that the cordons are respected by all and directions from officers at the scene are heeded.
‘We are not in a position to confirm the identity of the deceased at this time.’
It is believed that cordons will be maintained at the scene for some time as enquiries are carried out by the authorities.