Missing rivet head 'caused Farnborough jet crash'

The plane crashed into a house in Farnborough, near Orpington

A report into a private jet crash in which five people were killed has found a missing rivet head may have led to the shutdown of an engine.

Two pilots and three passengers died when the Cessna jet plunged into a residential area, destroying a house, shortly after take-off in March 2008.

The owners of the house in Farnborough, near Orpington, were away on holiday.

Accident investigators said neither of the aircraft's engines was producing thrust 70 seconds before it came down.

Just before impact, the co-pilot of the aircraft transmitted: "We have a major problem a major problem it looks as though we're, er, going in we're going in."

British Touring Car championship driver David Leslie, 54; Apex Motorsport boss Richard Lloyd, 63; Christopher Allarton, 25, and pilots Mike Roberts, 63, and Michael Chapman, 57, died in the crash.

The plane had taken off from Biggin Hill airport in Kent and was bound for Pau in south-west France.

The tower controller at the airport said "everything appeared normal".

Insufficient time

However, the crew had decided to turn back just two minutes into their flight after experiencing "engine vibration".

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said a rivet head securing the left engine fuel cut-off lever had become detached at some time prior to the crash.

This missing rivet head "may have led to an inadvertent shutdown of that (left-side) engine", the AAIB said.

Missing rivet 'caused jet crash'

The report said an attempt to relight the second engine "was probably started before the relit first engine had reached idle speed, resulting in insufficient time for enough thrust to be developed to arrest the aircraft's rate of descent before ground impact."

The AAIB said: "There was no evidence that either engine would not have been able to respond to flight crew control input. Both engines were operating when the aircraft struck the house.

"A single engine relight could have produced sufficient thrust in the time available to prevent ground impact. Both engines were relit prior to impact but with insufficient time to prevent ground impact."

The aircraft was not, nor was required to be, carrying any black box flight recorder equipment.

Away on holiday

The report went on: "This meant that information critical to identifying the cause of the accident was not available to the investigation."

The house owner Edwin Harman, now 74, was away on holiday while his wife, Pat, now 70, had returned from holiday before her husband and was heading home at the time of the accident.

The garage of a neighbouring house and a car parked next to it were also destroyed by the impact and ensuing fire. But no-one on the ground was injured.

Mr Leslie was a father-of-two while Mr Lloyd had three daughters. Mr Roberts was from Effingham in Surrey and Mr Chapman was from Shoreham in West Sussex.

Mr Allarton, who was from Newark in Nottinghamshire had graduated from Coventry University and had just started working for Apex Motorsport.

The Harmans have only just moved back into their rebuilt house.