Five Lost When C402, Homebuilt Plane Collide Near Coventry Airport

ANN REALTIME UPDATE 08.18.08 2000 EDT: Officials in Britain have confirmed the private aircraft that collided with a Cessna 402 near Coventry Airport was not a "microlight," as was initially reported.

"Using the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) UK Register I have confirmed that the aircraft was not a microlight. It was a two seat home-built light aircraft from the LAA (Light Aircraft Association) fleet," said Geoff Weighell, Chief Executive of the British Microlight Aircraft Association, to The Press Association.

ANN has received reports the plane was a Rand KR2, a composite-bodied, high-performance two-seat plane.

Authorities expect to release the identities of the plane's pilot, as well as of the four people lost onboard the C402, on Tuesday.

Original Report

1300 EDT: British investigators are working to determine what led to Sunday's fatal midair collision between a Cessna light twin and a single-seat ultralight, type unknown, near Coventry Airport in Warwickshire.

BBC News reports the planes collided on approach to land at Coventry, with both disintegrating on impact. The ultralight impacted near the site of the collision, about two miles from the runway; wreckage from the twin, identified in press reports as a Cessna 402, came down in a wooded area near Coombe Abbey Country Park.

The pilot and three passengers onboard the Cessna 402 were lost, as was the ultralight's pilot. Investigators have recovered wreckage from the ultralight, as well as that pilot's body.

"They have found one wing and the tail, and they are hoping to find even more as they go," a police spokeswoman told the BBC. "What they have to do is mark out where they found everything. It will be recorded and taken away for evidential purposes."

The C402 (file photo of type, below) was operated by Reconnaissance Ventures Ltd (RVL), a local land survey company. The plane was returning from a routine survey when the crash occurred.

"It had been taking an entirely routine flight and was on a perfectly normal approach to land at Coventry," said RVL managing director Colin Dennis. "It was approximately two miles from the runway... We believe it had been cleared to land by Coventry airport air traffic control when it was in collision with a smaller, single-engine light aircraft, which was also hoping to land at Coventry."

Witness David Mooney described the Cessna's final moments.

"I saw a plane travelling east, coming down sharply straight towards the woods. Immediately thought it looked like something was wrong," Mooney said. "Then, at the last minute, just 50ft up, the pilot managed to pull up the nose of the plane. It looked like he was trying to save the plane from the trees.

"But then I realized that the plane was going down and it disappeared into the woods."

FMI: www.atlanticflightcalibration.co.uk/index.php, www.coventryairport.co.uk/