Police name crash victims
18.12.07
Two men who were killed in a collision involving two light aircraft near East Midlands Airport yesterday have been named by the police. Peter Leigh, 60, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, was the pilot of a Luscombe Silvaire which crashed to the ground near Blithfield Reservoir. His passenger in the two-seater plane was David Arthur Sims, 67, of Stoke-on-Trent, who also died on Sunday.
Mr Leigh and Mr Sims shared a common interest in flying, police said, and had taken off from a farm in Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire. It is not known where they were heading. The other pilot involved in the collision guided his plane about 25 miles to East Midlands Airport where it made an emergency landing, closing the runway for around 3 hours.
The planes were on private leisure flights and neither was being directed by air traffic control. A police sergeant, Rupert Johnston, was flying with his 10-year-old son James and pilot Mike Carruthers in the plane that landed at East Midlands, a Pacific Aerospace 750 XL. All three escaped without serious injury.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is leading the investigation into the incident. Tim Atkinson, of the AAIB, said it was too early to say exactly what had caused the collision, but that weather conditions were clear and visibility was fine.
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