Oscar-winning performance
If there is a film archive to delve into, the one belonging to Ray Milland is a prime contender
AN OFFICIAL investigation has revealed the terrifying events which led a small plane with three family members on board to crash-land on a dual carriageway and burst into flames.
Jack Moore, 19, and sister Billie Manley, 16, were flying to watch Cardiff City play Manchester United with pilot uncle Stuart Moore on May 12, 2019, when the accident happened.
According to the accident report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the pilot had flown the plane, registered as 2-RORO, from Denham Aerodrome to Abergavenny Airfield that morning to pick up Jack and Billie.
The group then planned to fly to Manchester for the football match later that day.
They arrived in Abergavenny at around 9.30am and were ready to depart roughly 20 minutes later.
The report said that as the pilot prepared for departure, he noted all the engine indications were normal and completed his pre-takeoff checks.
The aircraft is said to have accelerated normally along the runway before lifting off and beginning to climb.
But almost instantly the pilot recognised that the engine was not delivering the expected power, the AAIB said.
Mr Moore and other witnesses at the airfield said they could hear the sound of the engine rising and falling like it was “surging”.
Believing there was insufficient runway
remaining to land the plane, the report said Mr Moore decided to continue the departure, climb away from the ground and carry out a forced landing at the earliest opportunity.
He aimed to land the aircraft on the A40, a dual carriageway which runs parallel to the airfield, if he could clear the trees running parallel to the runway.
However, the aircraft’s landing gear struck the trees and a power cable, sending it crashing onto the busy road.
Though it avoided vehicles on the road, the plane flipped onto its roof, slid along the road and came to rest against the central barriers on the far carriageway, before bursting into flames.
The crash caused the plane doors to become jammed and all three occupants
were trapped inside the fiery wreckage.
The plane was equipped with a hammer to break the windows in case of such an event, but the pilot and passengers were unable to find it in the confusion and disorientation of being upside down, according to the report.
Eventually, a bystander who rushed to help and one of the passengers managed to break a window, and the bystander pulled the three occupants out one by one. They were then able to run away from the raging fire, having suffered only minor injuries.
The majority of the aircraft was consumed by fire, the AAIB said, with little behind the engine firewall surviving. The engine, however, was relatively intact.
Emergency services recovered the wreckage so the road could re-open, and it was moved from the scene for further examination.
The AAIB report concluded that the loss of power after takeoff experienced by 2-RORO was “probably caused by over-fuelling”.
Over-fuelling occurs when “the fuelto-air mixture delivered to the engine is too rich in fuel for the conditions”, it said.
However, the cause of the overfuelling was not determined as several components of the fuel system, including the data recorder, were not located or were destroyed in the blaze.
The badly damaged plane was described by a witness at the scene as a pile of “melted metal”.
Harrison Francis-Fletcher, 18, who lives yards from where the plane went down, said: “The wooden post holding the power lines was broken in half.
“The plane was a pile of melted metal and left crushed up on the road.
“The only way you could tell it’s a plane is the two wheels sticking out of it.”
After the accident, passenger Jack Moore described it as “absolutely unbelievable” that his family had survived.
He said: “Absolutely unbelievable that me and my family have walked away from this, just want to say thank you to the passers-by that helped us at the scene and also the emergency services.”
“We are very lucky people,” he added.