Air crash couple back home
Wednesday 26th August 2009, 12:42PM BST.
The crash site
A Shropshire couple who survived a terrifying plane crash on the Channel Islands have returned home.
Alan and Pamela Ratcliffe arrived home at Six Ashes, Bridgnorth, yesterday evening following the crash in Alderney on Sunday.
Their light aircraft, a Piper PA-32, plunged to the ground and burst into flames on the island, coming to rest just 30m from the edge off a cliff after gouging a 150m path in a field.
Mr Ratcliffe, 59, who was piloting the plane, and his wife, 57, said today they were too shaken to speak of their ordeal, which saw them lose their passports, house keys and phones.
They had been on the plane with co-pilot Graham Greaves and his partner Katie Farrell, of Enville Common, South Staffordshire. Miss Farrell suffered a broken leg and underwent a CAT scan in a Guernsey hospital last night.
Mr Greaves said he did not want to discuss the couple’s ordeal until she had been discharged and he had spoken to Mr Ratcliffe.
“We hope Kate is going to be OK,” he added.
“I’ve got so much to sort out, we have not got our mobile phones, our passports, even the house keys, we lost them all.
“But everyone is OK, that is the main thing.”
The Civil Aviation Authority and the Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau are investigating the cause of the crash.
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