I felt a vibration in the ground, which I can only describe as a powerful rumble, shaking the earth for a split second, and minutes later 2 Sea-king helicopters and 1 Police helicopter were circling overhead. I grabbed a camera and got on the ground. This footage is edited for time, but we see a yellow Sea-king take off from Darrick Wood School and police cordons in the area.
I was interviewed on Sky news about people's reactions in the ground- which in my opinion were worries as to whether anyone was injured in the crash. Those who died have not yet been formally identified but they are said to include pilot Mike Roberts and passengers David Leslie, 54, a former British Touring Car champion driver and Richard Lloyd, 63, the boss of Apex Motorsport who was also a former touring car champion.. It appears injuries on the ground were minimal, 2 people were taken to Princess Royal University Hospital due to shock. The owners of a destroyed house were on holiday at the time and arrived home to the devastation on the evening of 30/03/08.
A pilot of a nearby aircraft heard the mayday call of the Cessna Citation I aircraft which went down. The aircraft experienced " severe engine vibrations", and the pilot of the stricken plane attempted to avoid the residential area of Broadwater gardens and hit a green area further away from the houses. He succeeded for the most part- the plane clipped a house on the periphery of the estate and hit the green area behind. There is a 400 meter cordon of the area, yet even here smoke can still been seen rising into the air 3 hours after the crash.
Please post comments of your experiences of the crash and your views on the Biggin Hill airport expansion: Do low flying planes worry you? Is this a foreshadow of things to come?
Contact me for a full-length copy of the footage.
Tags: Farnborough plane crash air aircraft darrick wood orpington kent sky footage airplane bbc locksbottom eye witness heli
Tags: Farnborough plane crash air aircraft darrick wood orpington kent sky footage airplane bbc locksbottom eye witness heli
