Date Published: 08/05/2021
ARCHIVED - British pilot from Totana killed as light aircraft crashes into the sea off Cabo de Palos
ARCHIVED ARTICLE The pilot was allegedly practising aerobatics on Saturday morning when the plane ploughed into the sea
Tragedy struck on Saturday morning when a 66 year- old British national, believed to reside in the Totana municipality died, when his light aircraft crashed into the sea just off the coast of Cabo de Palos in the Cartagena municipality of the Murcia region.
Eye witness José Luis Martínez, who was paddle surfing when he saw the accident occur relates seeing the aircraft practising the “loop the loop” manoeuvre very low over the surface of the sea, when it suddenly crashed into the water, hitting the surface with such force that the plane disintegrated on impact.
He immediately paddled towards the crash site and saw the body of the pilot floating on the surface of the water and was aided in recovering the body by a canoeist who had also seen the accident, along with a leisure craft, but nothing could be done to revive the 66 year-old, who had apparently died on impact and was declared dead at the scene by emergency personnel attending the incident.
The flight plan of the plane, which departed from the Totana flying club, listed only one person piloting the plane, with no passengers, although an extensive search is underway of the crash site with marine rescue services and divers from the Guardia Civíl to confirm that there are no further casualties.
The incident occurred just off the beach of playa El Descargador in the Cala Reona area of Cabo de Palos near to the lighthouse and the impact was heard by several beachgoers who notified the 112 services.
The body was taken to Cabo de Palos by leisure boat and will be later transferred to the Instituto de Medicina Legal, for an autopsy.
The Guardia Civíl is recovering the wreckage and will lead the investigation to determine the cause of the accident and ascertain if pilot error or mechanical failure was to blame.
Deepest sympathies to the family of the pilot, a well-known member of the international community.
Additional info: There has been widespread coverage of the accident in the British media, claiming that the pilot died whilst flying in thick fog. One of the eye-witnesses reported in the Spanish language media that the weather was "hazy" but the information published by the state meteorological agency Aemet does not indicate the presence of thick fog in the area so it has been impossible to ascertain whether this was correct or not. Images taken by air search and rescue just minutes after the accident which are those used on this article, show no trace of thick fog.
Various comments on social media from within the ex-pat community claim the information published is erroneous as the pilot "would never have flown aerobatic manouevres" as he "wasn´t that kind of pilot", but until the technical investigation and autopsy have been completed, only the eye-witness who saw the accident and stated that the pilot had been engaged in a loop the loop the manouevre has been quoted in the original report; obviously the social media users making their comments were not eye-witnesses and did not see what actually occurred.
At this stage, as stated above, the cause of the accident is unknown.
We deliberately took the decision not to publish the name of the deceased or the image being widely published by the Spanish language media (and The Sun from facebook) taken just before the pilot left the club out of respect for his family and for hinself; as stated above, he was a nice bloke, whom we had met on a previous occasion and are very sad to report his passing.