Essex: Two People Feared Dead In Plane Crash

Two men have been killed after a light aircraft crashed into a field in Essex.

Emergency services were alerted at around 2.55pm that a plane had gone down in a field between Ongar and Writtle.

Essex Police said the Yak 52 aircraft’s pilot and passenger, both from Essex, were killed.

The plane crashed after flying out from North Weald airfield.

A spokeswoman said: “Two people have died after a YAK 52 light aircraft was seen to be in difficulties and then crashed into a field off the A414 near Cooksmill Green (between Writtle and Ongar) around 2.55pm today.

“Emergency services rushed to the scene and fire crews extinguished the fire caused when the plane crashed. Two men, a pilot and his passenger – both from Essex, were on board. The plane had flown out from North Weald airfield.”

The spokeswoman said that officers were in the process of locating and informing next of kin.

Firefighters from nearby Chelmsford, Colchester and Maldon attended the scene.

The aircraft was “completely alight” when firefighters arrived at the scene near Cooksmill Green, Essex Fire and Rescue Service said.

A spokesman said: “On arrival the incident commander reported that the plane was completely alight.

“Crews used foam and had extinguished the fire by 3.55pm.”

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) spokesman said: “The Air Accidents Investigation Branch have sent a team to investigate.”

The Yakovlev Yak 52 is a Soviet aircraft which was first produced in the late 1970s and is still used for training both civilian aerobatics pilots and military pilots.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s many of the around 1,800 planes produced to date have been exported to the west, and they are still in production in Romania.

 

Essex: Two People Feared Dead In Plane Crash