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Ex-racing stars die in air crash
31/03/2008 13:45 - (SA)
Jennifer Hill
London - Two former saloon car racing stars died when their private jet crashed into a housing estate at the weekend, police said on Monday, as the operation began to remove five bodies from the wreckage.
David Leslie, 54, and Richard Lloyd, 63, the boss of Apex Motorsport, died when their Cessna Citation jet crashed into an empty house on the estate at Biggin Hill, Kent, shortly after take-off.
Leslie was a former prominent touring car racer and a commentator on the Eurosport television network.
Lloyd was a former British Saloon Car champion who was part of a three-man team that came second in the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race in 1985.
The pilot and two other passengers, from the south of England, have not been named by police.
Residents hailed the pilot a hero
Media reports however named the pilot as Mike Roberts, of Effingham, Surrey, who was said to be a director of Flight Consultancy Services, based at Biggin Hill.
Detective Chief Superintendent Charles Griggs, said on Monday four of the five victims' traumatised families were being comforted by police. Authorities, he said, had not been able to identify the fifth victim.
"We hope to remove the five bodies today," he told reporters at the scene. "Obviously the scene itself is relatively dangerous. It is a slow and painstaking recovery."
Biggin Hill airfield said the jet had just taken off when the pilot made an emergency call reporting difficulties and asking for permission to land again.
Fire officials were dousing parts of the scene, which were still smouldering on Monday. The occupants of the house into which the jet crashed were on holiday at the time.
An Air Accident Investigation Branch spokesperson said officials would scour the wreckage and recover the plane's black box for more details on the cause of the crash.
"But that cannot be done until the bodies are recovered," she said. Local residents hailed the pilot a hero after he apparently tried to miss the houses and land in a wood as the plane lost height with its nose up and engines screaming.
- Reuters
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