Bicester plane crash after just 20 minutes in the air

On Saturday morning, a light aircraft crashed into a block of flats near Camp Road in the Heyford Park Village.

Eyewitnesses said that the pilot had escaped with a parachute and landed away from the plane and Thames Valley Police confirmed that he was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The flats have only just been built and are currently unoccupied, with residents reportedly due to move in this week. Police say nobody else was injured.

App FlightRadar24, which tracks planes in the air, reveals what exactly happened moments before the plane came crashing down and its flight path.

It appears to have taken off from Bicester Airfield, just next to Launton.

It then loops round towards Upper Heyford, past Steeple Barton and Enstone up in the direction of Hook Norton and then back down back to Upper Heyford where it has landed.

The flight path

The plane was only in the air for 22 minutes before crashing and it struck the flats at 10.59am.

Speaking to this paper at the weekend, shocked neighbours who live just metres away from the crash on McGuire Road said it had been a real ‘what if’ moment.

Lloyd Waygood said he thinks people are moving into the block of flats where the plane crashed this week and that it could have been ‘so much worse’.

He said: “We heard a weird sound and didn’t think anything of it, it sounded like a car when it scraped over a speed bump, and then a low thud.

“There were no vibrations, no smoke or fire, nothing like that.

“Within 15 minutes of hearing the sound though, emergency services were here.

“Then, we were told to evacuate by police. We got a knock at the door and were told to evacuate, so we drove off and came back later.

“There’s supposed to be people moving into those homes potentially next week, so it’s very lucky and it could’ve been so much worse.

“We often see stunt planes flying over here at the weekend doing loop the loops, but you never expect this to happen at all.”

Another neighbour, Jason Beckett, added: “I heard a loud bang but didn’t think anything of it.

“It all happened very quickly and was over in five seconds.

“Those homes have been vacant for three months or so, it’s a good thing nobody has moved in yet.

“You don’t think these things will happen so close to where you live.

“As long as nobody is injured and the pilot is okay, that’s the main thing.”

The government’s department of aviation has now launched an investigation into what happened.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AIIB) said: “An investigation has been launched into the accident and a team of inspectors are at the accident site gathering evidence.”

On Monday, a team of eight investigators armed with clipboards, hard hats and high-visibility jackets were pictured working at the scene.  

Describing the investigation, one Bicester man said: “The plane that crashed was a very light aerobatic plane. It’s a type of aircraft called an extra NG, which is all carbon fibre. We were amazed to see that despite the force it hit the building with, it hadn’t even broken a window.

“The aircraft itself was almost completely destroyed though, as we watched the air crash investigation team removed the larger pieces of the wreckage, including the passenger seat of the aircraft. From where we were standing, everything forward of this seat seemed to have completely disintegrated, there were no signs of wings, although the marks on the brick wall show where the wing hit it. It looked like the engine and propeller had gone right into the building that was struck.”

It is understood that parts of the aircraft are being collected, including small debris, to then piece back together to work out how the aircraft ended up crashing into the flats.

Anyone with any footage or information should call the force on 101, quoting reference 857 (2/4).

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