One Air Crash Body Recovered

After yesterday's shock mid-air collision between a small aircraft and a microlight-type aircraft, an operation to recover the remaining bodies of the people killed is due to continue today.

Members of the public watched in horror as a Cessna 402 (similar airplane pictured) and a light aircraft collided in the skies above Coombe Abbey Country Park, in Brinklow, Warwickshire, on Sunday.

The emergency services have not yet been able to recover all the bodies of the victims from the wreckage, believed to be three men and two women, although one body, believed to be that of the small aircraft pilot, was found by rescue crews overnight at Coombe Abbey - a visitor attraction that today remains closed to the public.

Teams are currently searching nearby Brandon Wood for the other four.

An investigation involving police, the fire service, the RAF and the Air Accident Investigation Branch has also begun.

However, eyewitnesses have praised the pilot of the Cessna 402, understood to be a man, who is believed to have tried to steer his plane to safety.

They said that the pilot had managed to gain control of the twin-engined Cessna before it eventually plunged into trees in nearby Brandon Wood.

"The pilot did absolutely brilliantly to recover it. When it first happened it looked like the plane would go straight down but the pilot recovered it and seemed to be in control. Only then did it tip and come down suddenly," said one man.

All four people on board the Cessna 402 - two men and two women - were employees of specialist survey company Reconnaissance Ventures Ltd (RVL) and were confirmed dead at the scene.

The pilot of the light aircraft, believed to be a man, was also pronounced dead.

The Cessna was carrying out an aerial survey for a private company when the crash happened.

Shocked Colin Dennis, Managing Director of Coventry-based RVL, said the plane was coming into land at Coventry Airport when it collided with the light aircraft.

He said: "It was on a perfectly normal approach to land at Coventry, about two miles from the runway. We believe it had been cleared to land by air traffic control when it was in collision with a smaller aircraft, which was also hoping to land at Coventry."

(BMcC/KMcA)