Five dead as plane crashes into house (London)

[David Knudsen]

From www.brisbanetimes.com.au

Five dead as plane crashes into house

All five people in a private jet going to France were killed when the plane crashed into a housing estate near Farnborough, south-east of London, Kent fire brigade said.

No-one on the ground was killed.

Police said earlier the twin-engine private jet was carrying two pilots and three passengers. They said it was a miracle that no-one on the ground had been killed.

Local residents said the pilot had tried desperately to miss the houses as the plane lost height with its nose up and engines screaming.

"We looked out of the bedroom window and we saw it (the plane) flying really low, as though it was in trouble,'' Katherine Simnet, a resident of a nearby house, told the BBC.

"It swerved our house. It looked like it was trying to land in the nearby woods, the nearby fields... but it crashed ... and we saw two big clouds of black smoke and could smell the air fuel."

She said she thought the residents of the house were on holiday.

Ambulance services said two people had been taken to the nearby Princess Royal University Hospital suffering from shock. A spokeswoman said they had not been involved in the crash.

"There are no reports of any fatalities on the ground, just some minor injuries, nothing serious," a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.

One building on the quiet housing estate, believed to have been a garage, was burned down and the roof and top storey of a house next door were badly damaged.

Nearby Biggin Hill airfield said the Cessna Citation, a short-haul jet, had just taken off when the pilot made an emergency call reporting difficulties and asking for permission to land again.

"It unfortunately crashed before reaching the airport," the airfield said in a statement. An airfield official who did not wish to be identified said the jet had been heading to France.

Reuters

[Nigel C]

From www.autosport.com

Leslie and Lloyd killed in plane crash

Sunday, March 30th 2008, 21:18 GMT


Former British Touring Car racer David Leslie and sportscar team boss Richard Lloyd were among five people killed in a plane crash in Kent this afternoon, according to sources close to Autosport.

Their private Cessna Citation 501 aircraft was headed for the south of France where Leslie was due to drive Lloyd's Apex Motorsport Jaguar XKR in an FIA GT3 equalisation test at Nogaro tomorrow.

The pilot made a mayday call to Biggin Hill Airfield, near Farnborough, reporting severe engine vibrations, but the plane crashed into the corner of a housing estate seconds later. The plane's two pilots and three passengers were killed, but nobody on the ground was injured.

A pilot who was flying a small aircraft just ahead of Leslie and Lloyd's plane told Sky News: "I was on final approach to Biggin Hill and I heard the pilot declare mayday and I could hear alarms in the cockpit.

"The pilot said 'We're going down, we're going down.' The radio stayed live and as I turned off the runway I looked back and saw the plane drop out of the sky. The radio went dead and black smoke came up from over the hill."

Leslie, who was 54, was best known for his wins in the British Touring Car Championship at the height of the super touring formula's popularity in the late 1990s, but he had also enjoyed a long and successful career in single-seaters and sportscars.

Lloyd, who was 63, founded Richard Lloyd Racing, who ran Porsche 956s and 962s in the World Sportscar Championship. He also successfully ran Audis in the BTCC and at Le Mans, and managed Bentley's victorious return to Le Mans in 2003. More recently he developed the Jaguar XKR for the FIA GT3 Championship.

Authorities have not confirmed the identity of plane's occupants.

A statement from the Metropolitan Police read: "We haven't confirmed the identity of any of the victims. Until we know that all of the next of kin have been informed, we can't make any further comment."

[Brenden S]

Will be interesting in regards to the engine. Surely there would be sufficient power on one engine to at least glide/fly to a runway?

[NickN]

As a younger lad I remember watching David leslie race. What a shame.

[Adam G]

Originally Posted by Brenden S

Will be interesting in regards to the engine. Surely there would be sufficient power on one engine to at least glide/fly to a runway?

It could be that with the rear mounted engines, with an uncontained engine failure they had control cables damaged.

Could also be that they were unable to maintain the airspeed required to maintain directional control due to when the engine failure occured.

Just because you have 2 engines doesn't mean that you'll always have a successful outcome from an engine failure - to be honest in GA sometimes you're better with one, at least you know what the outcome will be, you maintain directional control & can plan for the final outcome from the onset.

[Chris Griffiths]

Originally Posted by Brenden S

Will be interesting in regards to the engine. Surely there would be sufficient power on one engine to at least glide/fly to a runway?

Wouldn't be the first crew(sadly unlikely to be the last either) that for an almost infinite variety of reasons found themselves on the wrong side of the energy curve.
Lot's of things can affect that... perhaps avoiding the park with children playing or attempts to avoid other populated areas were just beyond the power available.

As a motor racing fan and someone that has followed the progress of Richard Lloyd's teams and seen David Leslie race it saddens me to see more racing personalities lose their life in aviation accidents. (more of my racing heros have died in aircraft than in racing cars)

Cheers

[Robert Zweck]

Adam

You raise an interesting point...a few years ago in the States they came up with stats which showed more successful outcomes for singles rather than twins from failure of one engine.

Never had a failure in a twin and I often wonder how well I would handle the "real " thing.