Briton dies in Portugal plane crash

A Briton was among four people killed after a light aircraft crashed in Portugal.

The plane, which came down shortly after take-off from the seaside resort of Cascais, nine miles west of Lisbon, was understood to be carrying a group of Rotary Club members.

The others are believed to be two Australians and one American. They were en route to Porto, Portugal's second largest city, when the plane came down in mountains in bad weather.

It was one of 22 light aircraft transporting Rotary Club members around Europe. The pilot contacted air traffic control 20 minutes after take-off at about 10am yesterday, saying bad weather had forced him to turn back.

No further contact was made between the pilot and air traffic controllers. Rescue teams found the wreckage of the plane on an isolated mountain road just north of Lisbon. Cascais, on the Estoril coast, is a former fishing village popular with British tourists.

It is famous for the Boca do Inferno, or Mouth of Hell, where the sea roars into the coastline. Cascais is a few miles from the resort town of Estoril, popular for its casino, Grand Prix racetrack and golf course. There are more than 59,000 Rotary Club members in the UK and Ireland in 1,816 clubs.

Members undertake voluntary projects to help improve their local communities and have the right to attend any one of the clubs in 163 countries worldwide. The Foreign Office said those who died in the crash were expected to be identified later today. A spokesman said: "We are aware of these reports and are awaiting further information."

Meanwhile, the parents of the 45 Russian schoolchildren killed in the German-air disaster on Monday, when their jetliner collided with a cargo plane near Lake Constance, today left on the saddest journey of their lives.

The families wanted the opportunity to grieve and pray at the crash site, where debris is scattered over fields and forests. A special flight was arriving today from Ufa, the industrial city where the children were among some of the highest-achieving students.

One official said: "They want to be where their children now lie, to spend a little time there." Some parents said they hoped to take home a handful of soil from the area where wreckage fell.

On board the plane today were medical and blood records of the victims as well as clothing and photographs to help the German authorities identify the bodies. But parents were warned that many may never receive the remains of their loved ones because of the violence of the collision.