Five feared dead as helicopter crashes in mountain range
A MILLIONAIRE husband and wife and three adult members of their extended family were last night believed to have been killed when their helicopter crashed in a remote mountain area.
Rescue teams working in “atrocious” conditions found the wreckage yesterday morning, 15 hours after the RAF’s distress and diversion system lost radar contact with the red Twin Squirrel aircraft.
They are thought to have pinpointed the area in the Rhinog range, near Trawsfynydd in the Snowdonia National Park, by tracking the mobile phone signal of one of the victims.
A major search was launched on Wednesday afternoon when the aircraft went missing while flying the 270 miles from the Luton area to Dublin.
It initially concentrated on Caernarfon Bay and the Irish Sea but the operation, coordinated by police and involving local and RAF mountain rescue teams – later moved inland.
The wreck was discovered despite rain and mist which reduced visibility to 30ft.
Last night the effort to recover the bodies was suspended because of the appalling conditions.
Police said the exact location was not being revealed to allow recovery of the bodies from the “very difficult and challenging terrain”.
Details of the victims were being withheld but believed to be on-board were Kevin and Ruth Burke.
The couple live in Hulcote, near Milton Keynes, Beds, close to where the helicopter took off, and have a 14-yearold son and a daughter aged 19.
Mr and Mrs Burke are both directors of Staske Construction Limited which is the registered owner of a red Twin Squirrel. Mr Burke, a property developer and former local councillor, is a qualified pilot.
Richard Mann, 78, who lives close to the couple’s farmhouse said: “This has been a total shock.”
Superintendent Gareth Evans, of North Wales Police, said specialist officers were supporting the families of the dead who had been contacted by Thames Valley Police.
He added: “I am sure you will appreciate this is an agonising time for the families and friends of all involved. Our thoughts are very much with them at this time.”
He appealed for any members of the public who saw the helicopter in the skies near Trawsfynydd to get in touch with police.
A spokesman for the Government’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch said a team of inspectors had been sent to the site of the crash and an air exclusion zone was in place.