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Passenger, 73, dies in air crash | |
(about 5 hours later) | |
Investigators are at the scene of a light aircraft crash in Snowdonia in which a 73-year-old passenger died. | |
The two-seater plane came down 2,000ft up on a mountainside at the mouth of the Ogwen Valley near Bethesda. | |
The pilot, who is 60, is "poorly but stable" in hospital in Bangor following the crash. Both men are from Pontypool in Torfaen. | |
The Cessna had taken off from Caernarfon on its return flight to Herefordshire on Monday evening. | |
Police and air accident investigators are at the remote spot high up the mountain near the village of Llanllechid to try to find out what had caused the crash. | |
Mountain rescue teams and a helicopter from RAF Valley on Anglesey were alerted to the accident, which happened just after 1730 BST, by a member of the public. | |
The body of the man who died was brought down from the mountain overnight and a post mortem examination is to take place. | |
A spokesman for Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor said the survivor of the light aircraft crash was still poorly but stable on Tuesday morning. | |
'Too low' | 'Too low' |
Chris Lloyd, from Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team, said he believed the plane had clipped a slope and flipped over. | Chris Lloyd, from Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team, said he believed the plane had clipped a slope and flipped over. |
"It looks like the aircraft was just slightly too low to get over the ridge. | "It looks like the aircraft was just slightly too low to get over the ridge. |
"Had he been another 100ft high he would have got over." | "Had he been another 100ft high he would have got over." |
Mr Lloyd said they had been "evidence gathering" at the location "to find any traces or bits of aircraft or anything else". | Mr Lloyd said they had been "evidence gathering" at the location "to find any traces or bits of aircraft or anything else". |
Local county councillor John Robert Jones said the weather in the mountains can change quickly. | |
Instrumentation | |
"If an aircraft is flying over here, one minute it could be all clear and the next minute it's surrounded by cloud. | |
"The most experienced pilot I'm sure would agree that thy do panic or they do get into difficulty in the cloud there because they have to rely on their instrumentation." | |
The aircraft was on its way from Gwynedd to Shobdon airfield in Herefordshire. | |
A spokesman at Caernarfon Airport said: "It's with great sadness and shock that we learnt of the incident in Bethesda involving the private aircraft that departed from this aerodrome. | |
"We want to extend our deepest sympathy to the family of the deceased. | |
"We would also wish a speedy recovery to the injured survivor," he said. |