A FAMILY of four were killed when their six-seater plane crashed on Saturday on the Blackdown Hills, near Wellington.

Those who died were the 56-year-old pilot Philip Garvey, his wife wife Ann (55), their daughter Emily (23) and their 20-year-old son, Daniel.

The family, from the Woking area of Surrey, were travelling from Surrey to Dunkeswell Airfield on the Blackdowns when the plane crashed into a field near Churchinford in atrocious weather just before 11.45am on Saturday.

Local farmers rushed to the scene and called the emergency services but said there was nothing that could be done to help those on board. All are believed to have died instantly.

“The next door neighbour came in and said the plane had come down,” said Dave Manning, of Higher Southey Farm, Churchinford, who owns the field where the plane crashed.

“We went out and looked but there was basically nothing we could do. We took the pulse of one of the passengers but there was no pulse and we could smell aviation fuel, so we just left it until the emergency services turned up.”

All three emergency services raced to the crash scene. Some 27 fire and rescue crew members were joined by paramedics and police but it soon became apparent that all four people on board had been killed in the crash, which ripped apart the light aircraft.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday air crash investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch scoured the scene in the field near Buttles Lane looking for clues to the cause of the crash but the adverse weather is likely to have been a factor. While the searches were carried out the roads around the crash site were closed.

The plane was just a few miles short of Dunkeswell Airfield when it crashed in heavy rain and strong winds. The plane has now been recovered from the field for further examination by the AAIB.

Supt. Richard Corrigan said: “We have a specially trained family liaison officer supporting the affected family and they are being kept fully updated on our progress. Our thoughts are with them at this extremely difficult time.”

One local who was at the scene on Sunday said: “Obviously we don’t know what happened but it is hard to believe that they were flying when you look at the weather we’ve had this weekend. The plane has been totalled wrecked. The front looks like it has come off completely. It’s a terrible tragedy.”

There have been a number of fatal air crashes on the Blackdowns over the years, including two jets which burst into flames near the Merry Harriers and a helicopter which came down near Corfe in 2005 killing three men and a teenager.