Factory workers' lucky escape

Aircraft wreckage was lost in the factory debris

Factory workers in Hampshire are counting their blessings that their workplace was closed for Christmas after it was destroyed in Saturday's light aircraft crash.

Police said the death toll from the plane crash would have been far higher if the factory unit on the Blackbushe Retail Park had not been shut.

It was close to us, probably about 500 yards from my house

Geoff Perry
Anchor Inn

The unit, owned by a company called Linatex which makes rubber products, usually has a 24-hour operation.

Damage was so bad at the crash scene, in Yateley, that the emergency services found it difficult to distinguish debris from the aircraft from the wreckage of the factory.

But workers were on holiday when the plane crashed into the front of the building, some 200 yards from the end of Blackbushe airport runway.

Crash investigators are probing the cause of the accident in which five people - as yet unnamed - were killed.

Geoff Perry, 42, owner of Anchor Inn on Vigo Lane, Yateley, located behind the Blackbushe business park, was also counting himself lucky to have escaped the incident unharmed.

He said: "It came down pretty close to the house. I heard it come over. There was something wrong with the engine, you could hear it.

"There was a flash and a loud explosion, it was really loud. I could see a plume of black smoke.

"It was close to us, probably about 500 yards from my house. I went back inside and rang the police."