Plane stalled and spun before fatal crash near Penkridge

Two men were killed after a plane went into a spin and crashed into a shipping container at an airfield, an inquest has heard.

Pilot Christopher Ingle from Cannock and passenger Graham Jones from Kidderminster, died at Otherton Airfield in Penkridge, Staffordshire, on 4 June 2023.

The incident was found to have happened after their EV-97 EuroStar light aircraft experienced an aerodynamic stall after descending too steeply.

A jury inquest held at the civic centre in Stoke-on-Trent on Wednesday concluded the pair died as a result of an accident.

The jury was told taxi driver Mr Ingle, 56, and 63-year-old Mr Jones, a driving instructor and warehouse operative, owned the aircraft in a syndicate with a third man.

They were due to fly south from Otherton, where the plane was kept in a hangar, to another airfield about 37 miles (60km) away.

Geraint Herbert, from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), said Mr Ingle was a “relatively inexperienced” pilot who had 134 flying hours with 30 of those “in command”.

He said the weather was good on the day and the take-off appeared to be normal as the plane reached about 740ft (225m).

“When Mr Ingle did his flights, he was known to do two practice landings before departing. In this case, when he turned back towards the airfield, he was higher than he should be [for a landing],” he said.

“He turned in earlier than he would normally turn. We don’t know why he did that.”

Mr Herbert said the plane took a right turn towards the runway at about 550ft (167m) above ground before it descended at a “steep nose-down attitude” and went into a spin.

The inquest heard the aircraft was not fitted with a stall warning system, which can alert a pilot when a plane is about to stall so they can take corrective action.

The jury was also told the crash happened six seconds after the plane started to spin and Mr Herbert said he would be surprised if it had been possible to recover from it.

“If people are not expecting it, they are going to be startled. There may be a delay before you take recovery action but in this case you can’t train for recovery action because spinning isn’t permitted,” he added.

The plane caught fire after the crash and the two men’s bodies were recovered from the wreckage.

The inquest heard they both suffered multiple injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.