Repairs ordered to missing plane

The pair never arrived at their first refuelling stop

A problem had been reported in the type of plane being flown by two people from East Yorkshire who have disappeared.

Bernard Hunter and Joyce French went missing earlier this month on a flight from north-east Spain to Driffield.

They were in an Ikarus C42 built from a kit. A fault in the elevator mechanism in another C42 led to an instruction that a modification should be made.

Checks are being made to see whether Mr Hunter carried out repairs ordered by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Kit plane

The instruction for the work to be carried out was sent out to C42 owners in March and concerned part of the elevator, the device that allows a plane to climb or dive.

Mr Hunter, 62, built his plane from a kit supplied by Fly Buy Ultralights Ltd in Telford, Shropshire.

Simon du Boulay from Fly Buy Ultralights told BBC News Online that Mr Hunter would have been allowed to do the modification himself.

Mr du Boulay stressed that the fault, which had led to the modification notice, had affected just one plane.

"There has never been a structural failure of this type of aircraft in flight," he added.

Mr Hunter, the owner of the Busy Bees fish and chip shop in Bridlington, set off with Mrs French from L'Estartit, near Gerona, on the morning of 3 September.

After nearly four weeks it does not look hopeful that he will be found but we are all trying to be positive Dorothy Hunter

They were due to fly near the Pyrenees and make two stops in France before landing in East Yorkshire that evening.

But their last radio message was just under two hours after take off and they failed to arrive at their first refuelling point, St Secondin, near Poiters.

An extensive search has failed to find any trace of them or the aircraft.

Mr Hunter's wife Dorothy issued a statement on Thursday in which she said that the news about the modification "gives us some clue as to what might have happened".

She went on: "We do not know if Bernard was aware of the warning or if he acted on it.

"We will be talking to his friends to see if he did carry out the repairs.

"After nearly four weeks it does not look hopeful that he will be found but we are all trying to be positive."

No transactions on the pair's debit or credit cards have been made since they disappeared.

'Unlikely' cause

Responsibility for licensing Mr Hunter's type of aircraft is with the Popular Flying Association, based in Northamptonshire.

The association's head of engineering, Andrew Moore, said he thought it was "pretty unlikely" that an unmodified elevator could have caused a crash.

"If this piece had failed there was another one that could have carried the load," he said.

Mr Hunter's business is being looked after by his sons John and Richard.

Mrs French 's job as headteacher of Bridlington Nursery School has been taken over by an acting head.