Riddle of pilot’s text before death crash
A FRAUDSTER killed in an air crash told a relative his private plane was going down before it had begun spinning out of control.
Experienced pilot Muhammad Naviede sent a text while flying, saying: ‘I’m in a plane out of control and it’s going down.’
But an investigation found the message was ‘unusual’ as radar showed it was another two minutes and 18 seconds before the two-seater aircraft veered and Mr Naviede radioed a distress call.
The 60-year-old, who had links to former prime minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie, was killed when the plane crashed in Padbury, Buckinghamshire, in August last year.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) made no official finding of what had caused the fatal crash, but found no evidence of engine or mechanical failure.
Mr Naviede had training which should have taught him how to pull the plane out of a spin, the AAIB report said yesterday.
The married father-of-two, who was once thought to be worth £117million, had been jailed for nine years in 1995 over a £45million fraud. He was the brother of former government race adviser Nighat Awan, who entertained Mrs Blair at her home in Cheshire in 2004.
He was wearing a hands-free headset for calls but he would have had to use his phone to send a text, apparently while the plane was spinning.
The AAIB report said: ‘To achieve this would require considerable dexterity, especially in an aircraft that may have been out of control.’
An inquest is due to be held into Mr Naviede’s death although a date has yet to be set for a hearing.