Businessman August Inselkammer Jr, his wife Christina and their two children Max, 11, and Sophie, nine, (all pictured) died
These are the first pictures of a well-known German family wiped out in a Majorca air crash which killed seven people yesterday.
Businessman August Inselkammer Jr, his wife Christina and their two children Max, 11, and Sophie, nine, died instantly after the Bell 206 helicopter taking them to an upmarket restaurant for a birthday lunch hit a light aircraft.
Italian pilot Cedric Leoni, who worked for a German firm called Rotorflug at its base in Majorca, also died in the collision.
The two Spaniards travelling in the microlight who made up the death toll from the island’s worst-ever air crash, were named locally as pilot Juan Jose Vidal and his friend Gustavo Serrano.
Mr Inselkammer, who came from a well-known family of brewing entrepreneurs, was heading to lunch with friends at a restaurant in Camp de Mar near Andratx when he died.
In a twist of fate, the holiday pals the dead family were due to lunch with ended up having to go by road after one of the two choppers they had booked turned out to be too small.
The helicopter piloted by Mr Leoni was sent to the luxury Hotel La Reserva Rotana Manacor, near to the house where the Inselkammer family were staying.
Mr Inselkammer, who came from a well-known family of brewing entrepreneurs, was heading to lunch with friends at a restaurant in Camp de Mar near Andratx when he died. Pictured: Debris at the scene
The helicopter piloted by Mr Leoni was sent to the luxury Hotel La Reserva Rotana Manacor, near to the house where the Inselkammer family were staying. Pictured: An altimeter from one of the aircrafts
A well-placed insider said: ‘The dead man and his family were holidaying with another family and staying near the hotel.
‘They were known at the hotel from previous times they’d stayed.
‘It was the dead man’s 43rd birthday and the two families had arranged for two helicopters to pick them up, one for one family and one for the other.
Regional government president Francina Armengol on Sunday decreed three days of mourning. Pictured: Mr Inselkammer
Yesterday’s tragedy (pictured) is the second in recent years to hit the Inselkammer family, whose business interests include private brewery Ayinger which is now run by August’s brother Franz Inselkammer III
A well-placed insider said: ‘The dead man and his family were holidaying with another family and staying near the hotel.’ Pictured a door off one of the aircrafts
‘The other family ended up going by road because one of the helicopters had capacity for five and the other could only carry three including the pilot.
‘My understanding was that it was a last-minute decision the man whose birthday it was should take the bigger helicopter with his family and the other family should catch them up in a car, probably because it was his birthday.
‘The dead children are a young boy and a girl.’
The crash (pictured), which happened just after 1.30pm in the muncipality of Inca in the centre of the island, is being probed by the Civil Guard and Spanish air accident investigators
The tragedy is the second in recent years to hit the Inselkammer family, whose business interests include private brewery Ayinger which is now run by August’s brother Franz Inselkammer III.
August’s cousin Jannik, co-owner of another brewery in Munich, was killed aged just 45 in an avalanche during a skiing holiday in Canada in March 2014.
The crash, which happened just after 1.30pm in the muncipality of Inca in the centre of the island, is being probed by the Civil Guard and Spanish air accident investigators.
The wife of light aircraft pilot Juan Jose Vidal, known to friends by his shortened name of Juanjo, is said to have witnessed the mid-air collision from Binissalem Aerodrome where the two-seater plane had taken off from.
A minute’s silence will be held at midday today for the victims.
Regional government president Francina Armengol on Sunday decreed three days of mourning.