Illegal pilot crashed during stunt
Aren't some people totally irresponsible?
Sad for the others who died and leaving their kids without parents.
Paula
Illegal pilot crashed during stunt
An unlicensed pilot died when his aircraft crashed on the main London to Scotland rail line An unlicensed pilot who died when his light aircraft crashed on the main London to Scotland rail line was attempting aerobatic stunts, an accident report has said.
The aircraft maintenance records of the Piper Cherokee plane flown by Alan Matthews, 59, were incomplete and did not show that the required maintenance had been correctly performed, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said.
But the accident, in which two passengers were also killed, appeared to have been the result of a loss of control while Mr Matthews, of Walsall, West Midlands, was attempting an aerobatic manoeuvre and not as a result of mechanical failure, the report added.
During the manoeuvre on the morning of January 2, the aircraft entered a steep nose-down descent which resulted in a high-speed impact on the West Coast Main Line at Colwich Junction, near Little Haywood, Staffordshire.
The initial impact was with an overhead power gantry and a section of the line had to be shut for several days after the accident, causing travel chaos for thousands of rail passengers.
Also killed were Nick O'Brien, 35, and his wife Emma, 29, who lived at Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, with their two children. The flight had taken off from Sittles airfield near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
The report said Mr Matthews' pilot's licence had been validated until January 2003. According to Civil Aviation Authority records, his last recorded medical examination was in 1995 and his medical validity expired in 1997.
The AAIB said 64 hours of flying time had been recorded for the aircraft between March 2006 and May 2008 and it was likely that most of these hours were flown by Mr Matthews, who was married.
The report said that on previous flights Mr Matthews was known to have performed manoeuvres known as "wingover" and "stall turn" and it was "possible that this is what he was attempting, but that he lost control of the aircraft".
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