Flintshire air crash wreckage examined after two die

Investigators are examining the wreckage of a light aircraft that crashed in Flintshire on Friday killing a man and a woman.

Emergency services were called to Hawarden Airport just after 13:00 GMT when the twin engine plane came down.

The man, named locally as Gary Vickers, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the woman died in hospital.

A team from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is trying to establish what happened.

It is believed the plane was arriving from Paris when it crashed at the airport.

The area around the incident remains cordoned off at the airport, next to the Airbus wing factory, used by private and commercial planes.

North Wales Police said the alarm was raised at 13:07 GMT, and three appliances from North Wales Fire and Rescue rushed to the airport.

An emergency responder from the Welsh Ambulance Service also attended, along with two doctors and an ambulance.

Coroner informed

A spokesperson for North Wales Police said the investigation into the crash will be led by the AAIB.

"North Wales Police are currently not in a position to identify the man and the woman who died," added a spokesperson.

The force said the coroner had also been informed.

The AAIB confirmed on Friday that it had deployed an investigation team to the site.

The team will continue with an on-site investigation before the wreckage is taken to the AAIB headquarters at Farnborough, Hampshire, for further analysis.

Aviation consultant Chris Yates said he thought the cause may lie in mechanical failure.

"Nothing should have gone wrong in that final landing phase," he told BBC Wales.

"The pilot in question was very skilled in fixed wing flying and also in rotary flying.

"So probably the air accident investigators will focus more on the maintenance of the aircraft and whether any mechanical failure happened."