Four dead in mid-air collision after warning of air traffic control closure
Four people have died in a mid-air collision between a helicopter and a two-seater aircraft in Buckinghamshire following a warning over air traffic control disruption in the area.
Both of the aircraft are understood to have come from Wycombe Air Park and collided near the village of Waddesdon shortly after noon yesterday.
Superintendent Rebecca Mears, from Thames Valley Police, confirmed the aircraft had been carrying two people each.
She could not give any details of the identity or the genders of the victims last night.
Air crash investigators were called to the crash site and joined in the dense woodland by paramedics, firefighters and police.
Police said it was “too early to tell” what might have caused the crash.
A Notice to Airmen had previously been issued to warn pilots the air field’s air traffic control services would be closed during three 30-minute periods on selected days between 7-30 November due to a “staff shortage”.
The crash occurred about half an hour after the latest closure was due to end.
The plane involved was a Cessna 152 with a capacity for one pilot and one passenger.
Built in 1982, the aircraft is owned by Airways Aero Associations, which is based at the air field, and had been flown for almost 14,000 hours as of May.
The aircraft sustained substantial damage to its landing gear, propeller and engine covering during a previous crash as it was taking off at Bodmin airfield in Cornwall in July 1993. An archived report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch showed the pilot admitted the accident was caused by his “misjudgment and lack of experience”.
Waddesdon Manor, on the Rothschild family-owned estate near the crash site, described the latest incident as a “tragedy”.
RAF Halton, which is about 10 miles away, said no military aircraft were involved.
Wycombe Air Park is also known as Booker Airfield and sits around 20 miles away from the site of the crash.
The facility offers flight training for new pilots.
Waddesdon Estate gardener Len Bellis described how he found the “burning wreckage” minutes later. He had been working nearby when hehearda“horrendousnoise” like a tin hangar collapsing.
He said a witness told him he heard a plane “stuttering” just before the crash. “I just came across the wreckage,” Mr Bellis said, who described the light aircraft as a “wreck” and “non-existent”, apart from the 5ft burning fuselage.
Emergency services are expected to be at the crash site until at least Monday morning.
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