British family killed in plane crash in Ireland

Air accident investigators were today trying to piece together why a light aircraft crashed on the east coast of Ireland, killing all four people on board.

The pilot, Sharif Booz, was flying from Gloucester to Co Kildare with his wife, Margaret, his 14-year-old younger son, Ayman, and his son’s friend, when they dropped below radar in Co Wicklow, around lunchtime on Saturday.

The wreckage of the aircraft was discovered yesterday after a massive search operation by rescuers had to be suspended for some hours because of atrocious weather conditions. The plane came down in a bog in a remote region in the west of the county.

Mr Booz, a property developer from Almondsbury near Bristol, is believed to have been an experienced pilot. A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said that Mr Booz was a father-of-two who flew regularly. Ayman's friend was said also to have been aged in his mid-teens.