Two killed in plane crash after aircraft hit tree

TWO people were killed in a horror plane crash after the aircraft hit a tree.

Joe Mann, 69, was flying the light plane when it tragically smashed into a farm near the village of Buckland St Mary, in Somerset, on August 12, 2021.

Margaret Costa, 74, was the passenger when the plane got caught up in bad weather conditions.

In a “state of distress” married dad-of-four Joe then made an urgent call letting air traffic controllers know he wouldn’t be able to land at Watchford Farm.

The fatal crash saw both Joe and Margaret lose their lives.

An Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said Joe “found himself stuck above cloud during a cross country flight under visual flight rules”.

The report found Joe, who was not qualified to fly in cloudy conditions, had 1,411 hours flying experience with 648 hours of those on a plane like he was flying that day.

It also said when Joe asked for help, “the level of Air Traffic Control (ATC) support from the Distress and Diversion Cell and Exeter ATC was not sufficient to provide the assistance required by the pilot”.

Concluding there was a “breakdown in communication” between the two, the AAIB have made seven safety recommendations to prevent future crashes.

Contrary to what this article originally implied, Joe Mann was a qualified pilot with considerable experience both of the specific aircraft he was flying and of flying in general. We apologise for the error and the distress it caused both families. It has been corrected.