The first picture has emerged of the Vietnamese pilot who died in a mid-air crash while on a training exercise.
Nguyen Thanh Trung, 32, was in a helicopter with Captain Mike Green when they were involved in a collision with a Cessna 152 at 1,000ft over Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.
The other light aircraft was on a training flight with student Saavan Mundae, 18, being instructed by Jaspal Barha, 45.
Nguyen Thanh Trung, 32, was in a helicopter with Captain Mike Green when they were involved in a collision with a Cessna 152 at 1,000ft over Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire
Captain Mike Green, pictured, was flying the helicopter which was involved in the fatal crash
The student inside the Cessna has been named locally as Saavan Mundae, 18, from Isleworth
The Vietnamese Ministry of Defence confirmed Nguyen Thanh Trung’s death in a statement last night.
They said he was taking part in an advanced flight instructor training session in an Cabri -G2 helicopter.
Mr Mundae, who is a student at Bucks New University was studying air transport and commercial pilot training. He died alongside instructor Jaspal Barha.
Friends of Captain Green said his death would leave a ‘gaping hole’ in the commercial helicopter industry as he was one of Britain’s most experienced and talented pilots.
A former colleague, Captain Phil Croucher, said: ‘I shared a cup of tea with him only on Thursday morning. He was a true gentleman. He was probably the most well-respected instructor in the country. He achieved a very high position within the Army as an instructor.
‘He was an absolutely dedicated instructor. If you wanted a training instructor there’s no one more highly qualified. Almost everybody in the country has been instructed by him. Most instructors have been trained by him.’
Mr Croucher said claims on a pilot forum by an air traffic controller who said he saw the aircraft disappear on radar suggested the two had collided accidentally.
He said the claims were that the helicopter had been flying a straight path and the aircraft was descending, and the pilot would have been unable to see due to ‘blind spots’ below and behind, although he added it was ‘conjecture’.
Captain Green was flying this Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopter with a sightseeing passenger
This Cessna 152 took had instructor Jaspal Barha and Saavan Mundae, 18, on board. Mr Mundae was studying to become a commercial pilot at Bucks New University
Mr Mundae, pictured, was just nine weeks into his flight training course when he died
He said: ‘From the available evidence, it’s as near to a proper accident as you are likely to see – no negligence, absolutely none. That airspace was free airspace.’
Superintendent Rebecca Mears of Thames Valley Police said air crash investigators and police were expected to be at the scene until at least Monday.
She said it was ‘too early to tell’ what might have caused the crash.
Speaking to reporters at the scene, Ms Mears said: ‘I can now confirm that those four people were all men. Two in each of the aircraft involved.
‘All the families have now been informed and are being supported by officers in the family liaison arena. Three of the families have visited the site today with our support so they can understand a little bit more about what’s happened to their loved ones.
‘We remain on site today so that we work with the air accident branch and a number of other experts from the fire service and the military with a view to using their expert services to recover the men’s bodies, hopefully before the end of the day.’
Mr Green was a senior instructor with Helicopter Services, based at the airfield.
Aerial footage from above the site where the helicopter and plane collided in mid-air yesterday. Four people, two from each aircraft, are dead following the crash at 1,000ft
A spokesman for the company, which offers training flights and gift experiences, declined to comment.
The plane involved was a Cessna 152 built in 1982 and owned by Airways Aero Associations which is based at the Wycombe Air Park.
It had flown almost 14,000 hours as of May and had previously suffered substantial damage to its landing gear, propeller and engine following a crash at a Cornish airfield in 1993.
An archived report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) shows the pilot admitted the accident was caused by his ‘misjudgment and lack of experience’.
AAIB investigators could be seen at the scene carrying what appeared to be wreckage debris in clear plastic bags.
Those on the scene say no one survived the crash, which left smouldering wreckage near the grounds of the Waddesdon Manor. Police have now set up evidence tents at the site
Also at the site were fire investigators and police. Police tape marked the inner cordon which could be seen through the thick bushes that surround the area.
The aircraft collided just 15 minutes after taking off from Wycombe Air Park which trains rookie pilots.
Wreckage landed near the Rothschild family’s Waddesdon Manor, 16 miles north-west of the airfield, just after midday.
Today, specialist crash investigators continued to work at the scene to find the wreckage of the two aircraft in an effort to find clues about what exactly happened.
Unfortunately, neither of the aircraft will have been fitted with black box flight data recorders such as those normally found in large passenger jets.
It is understood the Air Accident Investigation Branch have called in specialist experts from the RAF to assist in moving the wreckage to their facility in Farnborough, Hampshire.
Residents in the nearby village of Upper Winchendon heard a loud bang and could see and smell a plume of black smoke from the crash scene.
The pilot of the helicopter and its single passenger, as well as the pilot and a passenger of the plane, died in the crash, which happened at around 1,000ft.
Pictures from the scene show fragments of the helicopter’s rotor-blades and the plane’s fuselage scattered around the woodland floor.
A piece of fin, thought to be the tail-end of the small, Cessna plane involved, was visible
A plume of smoke was seen over the woodland shortly after the two aircraft came down
The aircraft came down near Upper Winchendon near Aylesbury, to the north west of London
Flight data shows a two-seater helicopter was flying at 1,025ft in the area at the time, but suddenly went off radar shortly after 12 noon. It had only been in the air for 15 minutes.
The plane that crashed is believed to be a Cessna 152, a popular training aircraft which has space for only one pilot and one passenger.
A Cessna 152 took off from Wycombe Air Park around the same time as the helicopter and disappeared from radar at the same time.
The plane thought to have been involved was made in 1982. The helicopter feared to have crashed was built earlier this year.
Both the aircraft feared to have crashed made successful loops this morning, suggesting that they were being used repeatedly for pilots’ training.
Police close to the crash site in the Buckinghamshire woodland yesterday protected the scene
Police have accessed the woods and set up a cordon around where the two aircraft came down
Photos from the scene show police tents have been set up where the two planes came down
Fire engines and police were seen at the entrance to the estate as crash investigators took over
Waddesdon Manor said in a statement: ‘Lord Rothschild and his family extend their condolences to the families of all affected, and their thanks to the emergency services for their swift response and professionalism.’
Staff from the Waddesdon Estate, which is managed by a foundation set up by the eminent Rothschild family, helped direct emergency vehicles to the scene of the tragedy as police threw up a massive cordon around the area to preserve the scene.
Waddesdon Estate gardener Len Bellis described how he found the wreckage minutes later after hearing a ‘horrendous noise’.
He said the Cessna was ‘non-existent’ but for a 5ft section of burning fuselage.
Two men he met at the scene told him they’d heard the plane ‘stuttering’ just before the crash.
The grand country manor house, which was used in the filming of The Crown and The Queen starring Helen Mirren, is understood to have been hosting a Christmas Market at the time of the crash.
The Cessna 152, built in 1982, is owned by Airways Aero Associations. It needed extensive repairs in 1993 after a crash in Cornwall.
Staff from the Air Accident Investigation Branch have been drafted in to begin an inquiry into what led to the mid-air collision.
One pilot said it was easy to be distracted by the estate.
Writing on an internet flying forum, the 36-year-old added: ‘I’ve been guilty of paying too much attention to pointing passengers to the Rothschild palace and not enough to a lookout.’
This was the scene at the airfield where the planes took off this afternoon. A helicopter similar to that feared to have been involved in the crash remains on the ground
How did the mid-air crash happen?
The helicopter, a 2017 French-built Guimbal Cabri G2, took off for its second flight for the day from High Wycombe at 11.47 am.
According to data from Flight Radar 24, the aircraft had earlier successfully completed a 30-minute flight.
The aircraft took off and routed north over the Chiltern Hills Area of Natural Beauty. Within five minutes it was flying at 1,025 feet at 60kts approaching Princes Risborough.
The helicopter, a 2017 French-built Guimbal Cabri G2, took off for its second flight for the day from High Wycombe at 11.47 am
The helicopter, which can carry two people, continued towards Waddesdon. At 12 noon the aircraft was last seen at 1,025 feet to the east of Upper Winchendon.
Three minutes before the crash, a Cessna 152 which was built in 1982, was north west of Princes Risborough at 2,800 feet and travelling at around 70kts.
The flight tracking radar did not record the Cessna leaving Wycombe Park Aerodrome, although it is believed it departed shortly after the helicopter.
One minute before impact, the Cessna is believed to have increased its altitude to 3,700 feet, but it its final radar return moments before the accident showed it dropped down to below 2,800 feet.
Flight crash investigators will want to determine how an aircraft apparently 1,700 feet above the helicopter shortly before the crash could have been ended up being involved in a collision.
Like the helicopter, the Cessna was also on its second flight of the day.
Police vehicles surrounded the scene this afternoon as the investigation got underway
Fire crews and rescue workers raced to the scene after the first reports of the crash came in
An air ambulance landed on a nearby field although it is not thought anyone went to hospital
Aerial footage shows police activity in woodland set back not far from a local road
Country residence starred in films: The history of Waddesdon Manor and its billionaire owners
Today’s mid-air crash happened above the grounds of a manor built for one of the world’s richest families – the Rothschilds.
The billionaire banking dynasty owned Waddesdon Manor from when it was built in 1889 until they gifted it to the National Trust in 1957.
The family’s banking business was established by Mayer Amschel Rothschild (born in 1744) in Frankfurt in the 1760s.
The aircraft came down near the grand Waddesdon Manor. A man believed to have been walking nearby ran up to the manor to tell staff what had happened
Waddesdon Manor, shown here in 1890, was built between 1874 and 1889 in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
The name Rothschild is derived from the House of the Red Shield (‘Rot Schild’) which was built by Mayer’s ancestors in one of the first Jewish ghettos in the German city in the 16th century.
Through Mayer’s five sons – Amschel, Salomon, Nathan, Karl and Jakob – he set up an international banking enterprise with branches in London, Paris, Vienna and Naples, as well as Frankfurt, by the 1820s.
The family’s banking business was established by Mayer Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt in the 1760s
Nathan, in particular, made huge profits via the Napoleonic Wars. He provided financial support to the Duke of Wellington and went on to loan money to English troops fighting Napoleon – netting healthy profits when the debts were repaid.
In the 19th century, the Rothschilds owned the largest private fortune in the world.
The dynasty’s wealth today has been divided among various descendants – and, in addition to banking and finance, has its interests in mining, energy, real estate and winemaking.
The Rothschild family is also known for its charitable activities, particularly in the arts and education.
The last time Waddesdon Manor was owned by a member of the family was in 1957, when it belonged to James de Rothschild.
He bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust and today it is managed by the Rothschild Foundation chaired by Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild.
Boris Johnson met Lord Rothschild at the manor in 2014 for the opening of an exhibition
Beth Rothschild, Jacob’s daughter, still lives on the estate.
Born in 1964, she is a Vice President of the Wiltshire Blind Association, and she is a trustee of the Rothschild Foundation. Beth married Antonio Goffredo Tomassini in 1991.
With 390,000 visitors annually, Waddesdon Manor is one of the Trust’s most visited properties.
It has featured in several films and TV shows, including The Queen, which starred Helen Mirren; Downton Abbey, where it stood in for the exterior of the fictional Haxby Park; and The Crown, the biographical TV series about Queen Elizabeth II.
Mrs James de Rothschild outside Waddesdon Manor in 1979