Pilot brothers killed in freak plane crash

Two brothers died in their plane after a screwdriver became jammed in the flight controls, stopping them pulling out of an aerobatic dive, a report reveals today.

Pilot Anthony Hunt, 48, and Ian Hunt, 45, were killed instantly when the plane plunged vertically into a field.

Investigators examining the wrecked plane, which hit the ground so hard it sank five feet into the earth, found the screwdriver still jammed in the tail flap.

The crash happened after Anthony, of Camberley, and Ian, from Wimbledon, took off from near Towcester, Northants, last January.

Five minutes later the Romanian-built Yak aircraft was seen performing aerobatics. After flying a sequence of manoeuvres lasting approximately 10 minutes the aircraft was seen to enter a vertical climb and execute a turn at about 3,000 feet.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch report criticised the design of the Yak aircraft.

The AAIB recommends that the Civil Aviation Authority should require the Yak 52 and aircraft of a similar design "to have fitted a method of preventing loose articles migrating to a position where they could interfere with operation or jam the controls".

Anthony Hunt was an experienced pilot with more than 1,715 hours. His brother was also a qualified pilot.