A report has detailed how an aircraft crashed and burst into flames at a Staffordshire airfield, killing two men.

Christopher Ingle, 56, and Graham Jones, 63, died at the scene when the light aircraft they were in came down near Penkridge last June.

Investigators said the plane took off normally from Otherton airfield but then appeared to be returning to land just moments later, when it entered a spin and crashed.

They said the left-wing struck the top of a metal shipping container and parts of the aircraft were subsequently consumed by fire.
Investigators commented in their report: “The pilot was relatively inexperienced and suddenly entering a spin would have startled him and possibly limited his ability to respond promptly and correctly.”

They said the two men had intended to fly to another airfield about 40 miles away.
Although the investigation was unable to establish why the plane descended, nor why it appeared to return to the airfield, it noted that the conditions for a spin were caused by a high bank angle, reduction in speed and retracted flaps on the aircraft.

Investigators said there was no evidence of a structural failure prior to the crash.