Harry Styles’ f lying teacher died as plane ‘fell out of sky’
A PILOT who gave Harry Styles flying lessons was killed along with a friend when their plane ‘fell out of the sky’ and crashed into a field, an inquest heard.
Nick Jefferies, 54, whose daughter once dated the One Direction star, was killed instantly in the crash.
He and passenger Scott Penlington, 25, had taken off from an airfield in Cheshire and were on their way to Swansea when they got into trouble at 2,500ft.
Witness Rebecca Fleck watched in horror as the light aircraft crashed on her family farm.
She said: ‘It was spinning, rolling in all directions.’ She said she then heard ‘a thud’.
The tragedy happened at Cwmbach, Builth Wells, Powys, in September 2016.
Another witness, Alison Lloyd, said: ‘I saw the plane coming straight down, it just seemed to be spinning.
‘The wings weren’t in the place they should be, there was no sound, it was silent. I then heard an almighty thud.
‘I didn’t see any flames, I didn’t see any smoke, it was as if it was just falling out of the sky.’
Harry Styles, 24, had been a close family friend of Mr Jefferies, living in the same village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire and dating his daughter Emilie, 22.
Styles remained friends with Emilie, and her father took him on flying lessons in a single- engine two-seater plane.
The inquest in Welshpool, Mid Wales, heard Mr Jefferies owned the Eurostar EV-97 and had flown about 350 hours since he qualified in 2014. His passenger Mr Penlington, also of Holmes Chapel, was a friend of his son and they were on their way to Swansea to see him
‘Plummeting down and spinning’
when tragedy struck. A post-mortem examination revealed both men died after suffering multiple injuries.
A report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in February found the aircraft had been unable to recover from an ‘inadvertent manoeuvre’. The report stated: ‘Witnesses reported having first heard an aircraft engine making an unusual noise when the aircraft was flying straight and level, before seeing the nose dropping and the aircraft “plummeting” down and spinning.’
Another witness saw the aircraft ‘corkscrewing’ downwards and noted that a wing had ‘folded back’. The report could not establish the cause of the mystery manoeuvre – but said something may have taken the pilot by surprise, such as a sudden illness or a collision with a bird.
The inquest, which is expected to last three days, continues.