Pilot with 70 hours flight experience died in French Alps crash while checking on downed plane

A pilot, who had just 70 hours of flying experience, was killed along with his teenage passenger while attempting to check on a fellow downed plane, an inquest heard.

Andrew Buck, 37, and Lewis Stubbs, 18, died when their light aircraft crashed in the French Alps in July 2019.

The pair were part of a group of four planes who were flying from Northumberland to Malta.

Despite planning the route well in advance, the group, led by Mr Buck, took a wrong turn up a valley, the “dead end” Maddalena Pass, while flying from France into Italy.

Although three of the planes managed to turn around after spotting the rising ground, the fourth, piloted by Alexander Szymanski, had to make a forced landing as it had neither the speed or height to complete the manoeuvre.

Mr Szymanski's plane flipped over on the ground but he was uninjured and able to radio the others before fleeing the wreckage, the inquest heard.

Mr Buck, who had logged about 70 hours of flying compared to the 150 to 400 hours of the other three pilots, turned back to check on Mr Szymanski after hearing of the crash.

A report from the French police said he made the turn "at too low a speed and too steep an angle" causing the plane to stall and spin into trees, with both Mr Buck from Seaham and Mr Stubbs from Gateshead suffering head injuries, bone fractures and fatal internal organ damage.

Sunderland assistant coroner Andrew Tweddle said it was a "tragedy" and concluded both deaths were accidental.

There was a "combination of all factors going in the melting point" to cause the "tragedy”, Mr Tweddle said.

Ruling the deaths accidental, he said he was "satisfied" there had been "proper planning" of the flight and the "key thing" was "nobody would have done a wrong turn deliberately".