Harry Styles’ flying teacher was killed when his plane crashed after a sudden mystery manoeuvre at 2,500ft in mid-air, an accident report has revealed.
Nick Jeffries, an instructor who gave lessons to the One Direction singer after he dated his daughter, was killed instantly in the crash alongside Scott Penlington, 25.
The pair had been flying at 2,500ft from an airfield in Cheshire to Swansea when witnesses spotted the plane ‘corkscrewing’.
The tragedy struck during the one hour and 20 minute journey with ‘safe pilot’ Mr Jeffries, 54, possibly ‘startled by an unknown event.’
Harry Styles is a close family friend of late pilot Nick Jefferies after he once dated his daughter Emilie (pictured together)
Nick Jeffries, an instructor who gave lessons to the One Direction singer (right) after he dated his daughter, was killed instantly in the crash
Mr Jeffries had been flying with his son’s friend Mr Penlington when the silver Evektor EV-97 EuroStar crashed in September 2016
A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found the plane may have attempted an ‘inadvertent manoeuvre’ when the left wing bent back.
The report said: ‘Witnesses reported having first heard an aircraft engine making an unusual noise when the aircraft was flying straight and level, before seeing the nose dropping and the aircraft ‘plummeting’ down and spinning.
‘Another witness saw the aircraft ‘corkscrewing’ downwards and noted that a wing had ‘folded back.’
The report could not establish the cause of the mystery manoeuvre – but said something may have taken the pilot by surprise.
It added: ‘A medical event or incapacitation of either pilot or passenger is possible or, alternatively, an unknown external event such as a potential collision with an object or bird, could have led the pilot to take abrupt avoiding action.’
Mr Jeffries had been flying with his son’s friend Mr Penlington when the silver Evektor EV-97 EuroStar crashed in September 2016.
Mr Jeffries (left) had been flying with his son’s friend Mr Penlington (right) when the silver Evektor EV-97 EuroStar crashed in September 2016
Styles was a close family friend of Mr Jeffries and once dated his daughter Emilie, also 24, because they came from the same Cheshire village of Holmes Chape
The report found the crash in Cwmbach, near Builth Wells, Powys, was ‘not survivable’.
It found there was a structural failure near the root of the wing, caused by upward bending beyond its design limits. No pre-existing defects or faults were found.
Styles was a close family friend of Mr Jeffries and once dated his daughter Emilie, also 24, because they came from the same Cheshire village of Holmes Chapel.
He remained friend’s with Emilie – and her father Mr Jeffries took him on flying lessons in his single-engine two-seater plane decked in the Union Flag colours.
An inquest was opened into their deaths last year.