Inquest into air collision deaths starts next week

Brian Normington, 70, from Blackdown, Leamington and James Beagley, 34 of Broad Street, Warwick, died when the former’s KR2 kit plane collided with a twin-engine Cessna 402 piloted by Sophie Hastings on the approach to Coventry Airport in Baginton on August 17 2008.

Miss Hastings, 28, of Swadlingcote, Derbyshire, John ‘Harvey’ Harcourt Antrobus, 28, of Shawbury Lane, Fillongley and Sybille Karen Gautrey, 33, of Towcester, Northamptonshire, were also among the dead.

The crew, which included Mr Beagley, were conducting a routine 90-minute flight for aerial survey company Reconnaissance Ventures Ltd.

All were well-known to operators and the tight-knit flying community at the airport.

Eyewitnesses praised Miss Hastings for steering away from a housing estate at Binley Woods after a side-on collision at 700ft, which caused the Cessna’s right engine to explode.

Mr Normington was a former RAF pilot who had had 20 years’ experience and had flown some 600 hours in aircraft like the Rand KR2.

The incident was the second time five people have died on the approach to Baginton following an accident in which a Boeing 737 cargo plane crashed at Willenhall Woods after clipping two houses in 1994.

The inquest, for which a verdict will be returned by a jury, will take place at Warwickshire Justice Centre in Newbold Terrace and will start on Monday.

Proceedings are expected to last for about two weeks.